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Too much time sitting and watching TV is taking years off your life expectancy, a study says. Researchers arrived at the conclusion from the results of five studies that explored the effects on nearly 167,000 people of sitting and watching television.
Peter Katzmarzyk, the study’s lead author and a professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., said “…the study doesn’t establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship between sitting, TV watching and death. But the evidence suggesting an association between shortened lives and sedentary activities, like TV watching and driving, is piling up”
There also seems to be something about sitting itself that is bad for one’s health. Studies in both animals and humans have found that sitting leads to changes in resting glucose levels and blood pressure, and that lots of sitting bumps up levels of certain biomarkers of cardiovascular disease and cancer.
“The take-home message is clear: we may not know exactly why sitting is bad for you, but if you reduce the amount of time spent sitting, there are real health benefits,” the researchers said. | http://www.channelstv.com/home/2012/07/10/the-more-you-sit-the-shorter-your-life-span-study/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitterAbeg | 233 | Health | 3 | en | 0.999937 |
Ogbeosowe mass ground
By S. Elizabeth Bird and Fraser M. Ottanelli
“I looked around and I saw machine guns all around us. Some of them were also carrying automatic rifles. One of them shouted an order, and they started shooting.”
With these chilling words, Ify Uraih describes how the massacre of hundreds of innocent civilians began in Asaba more than 40 years ago. Here we document how this terrible event unfolded, why it is important, and why the people of Asaba now demand recognition.
It started on October 4, 1967, when Nigerian federal troops entered Asaba, the Niger River town that was then part of Nigeria’s Midwest Region. The war over the secession of the predominantly-Igbo Eastern Region, renamed Biafra, had broken out in July; in August, the Biafran army had advanced across the Niger Bridge and progressed through the Midwest, headed for Lagos.
Federal troops counter-attacked, pushing the Biafrans back across the Niger at Asaba. The Biafrans blew up the Onitsha end of the bridge, leaving the Federal Second Division, commanded by Col. Murtala Muhammed, on the Asaba side.
Asaba, although ethnically related to the Eastern Igbo, remained part of Nigeria, and supported the government’s ideal of a multi-ethnic “One Nigeria.” As Wole Soyinka wrote in 1972, the Midwestern Igbo, caught between their desire to remain part of the federation and their identity with Eastern cousins, became “the most vulnerable Nigerians.”
Asaba had a long tradition of high education, producing a disproportionate number of professionals and high-ranking civil servants, who had contributed to a sense of allegiance to a united Nigeria, and trust that Federal troops would behave appropriately. Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, had issued a military Code of Conduct, so when troops arrived, the townsfolk were unprepared for what followed.
Soldiers occupied the town, and began killing civilians (mainly boys and young men) accused of Biafran collaboration. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, were killed in the next three days, some apparently randomly, while others appeared to be targeted.
Stanley Okafor, then a university student, described how he and several relatives were summoned by troops: “we got to the police station and there was a huge crowd. And then they would come around and they would say do you know Mr. X, Mr. B, and do you know his house? They had names they wanted to kill. And once in a while they’d pick someone from the crowd, go to the back and you hear gunshots. And the crowd would wail.”
Patience Chukwura, a young mother expecting her fourth child, saw her husband Eddie gunned down near the police station, along with his brother, Christian: “That made me hysterical. I held onto the soldier and said, ‘Why did you kill my husband?’ The man, with the butt of the gun, hit me on the chest and said, ‘woman, if you’re not careful, you’ll get killed as well.’ We feared they were going to wipe out everybody in Asaba, especially male children.”
Troops invaded homes, demanding money, executing men and boys, and abducting women, often before setting the houses ablaze. The streets were littered with corpses. Patrick Okonkwo recalled that his compound was crowded with extended family members, when soldiers entered and shot his two brothers, a cousin, and two other relatives. His father buried them in shallow graves in the compound.
On October 7, in hopes of avoiding more violence, Asaba leaders summoned everyone to gather to show support to the troops by making a pledge to One Nigeria. Hundreds of men, women, and children assembled, dancing and singing. According to survivors, as the parade reached a major junction, troops removed women and young children, and directed men and boys into an open area.
As the crowd began to realize what might be happening, panic grew, as Peter Okonjo explained: “Women who came with their sons were removing their skirts and blouses to disguise them. And I looked at the whole place, there is nowhere to escape.”
Ify Uraih was 13 years old, and had joined the parade with his brothers and father. He described how the officer in charge, identified by several witnesses as Ibrahim Taiwo, gave the order to open fire, and the massacre began: “Some people broke loose and tried to run away. They shot my brother in the back. The rest of us just fell down on top of each other. And they continued shooting, and shooting, and shooting. I don’t know how long it took; after some time there was silence.”
Hundreds died; survivors report climbing from among heaps of bodies when the soldiers finally left hours later. Ify Uraih survived, but his father, Robert, and brothers Emma and Paul were dead. His brother Medua was shot multiple times, but survived.
Between 500 and 800 were murdered, in addition to many from previous days, and many people fled the town. Although there is no firm death count, our research suggests that more than 1,000 died at the hands of the troops during October. Most were buried in mass graves, without observing requisite practices, and the town was destroyed, with most of the houses looted and burned.
The long-term impacts of these tragic events were profound; many extended families lost multiple breadwinners, and the town’s leadership was decimated. Survivor accounts and reports by relief agencies show that Asaba remained in dire straits until the war’s end, most inhabitants having fled or subsisting in refugee camps. Soldiers assaulted and abducted women and girls with impunity. The destruction was so complete that Asaba disappeared from the official roll of Nigerian towns in 1969.
The atrocities at Asaba remained virtually absent from the published record, and have largely remained unacknowledged. A major reason was lack of media coverage at the time. Of course Biafra became world-famous, but its public, international narrative developed after the retreat of the Biafrans across the Niger, after which the federal government imposed a blockade, effectively starving the East into submission, and searing the images of emaciated children into the international memory of the War.
This contrasts with the lack of attention in 1967, when the Midwest people suffered most. The Federal government suppressed accounts of military action against civilians in the Midwest, and the international media were carefully managed. The 1967 massacres received almost no press coverage at the time. In later historical accounts, the Asaba events, if mentioned at all, are usually dismissed as aberrant or unproven.
In 2001, some Asaba survivors testified to the Nigerian Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (HRVIC, or Oputa Panel), commissioned by President Olusegun Obasanjo, and charged to consider the history of human rights abuses from 1966 to May 1999, of which civil war events were part. The Asaba accounts were included in the Ohaneze Petition, presented by Barrister Chuck Nduka-Eze, and drawing on earlier research by Emma Okocha, as well as testimonies recorded in 1969.
The HRVIC’s report was never officially released, although it is now available on the internet. Obasanjo declined to offer formal apologies, although in a landmark moment, Gowon publicly apologized to the people of Asaba in 2002, opening the door to further efforts at truth and reconciliation.
After the Oputa Panel, Asaba leaders formed a committee to develop a memorial process, seeking an academic partnership to research the history of the event objectively. We responded, and with the support of our university’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies Center, have been researching the events of 1967 and beyond. Our work is based on an array of sources, including archival collections on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as videotaped interviews with almost 80 people.
Most are direct witnesses and survivors, while others testified about the long-term impacts on Asaba. They were interviewed in several locations – Asaba, Lagos, Ibadan, Benin City, and the United States, and their stories produce a compelling, detailed, and consistent account of the atrocities that befell their town.
Our research has produced several interrelated conclusions. First, it shows that the killings in Asaba were unprovoked, and stemmed directly from a chain of events that started before the war, continuing through the Biafran offensive across the Niger, which stirred up simmering ethnic hatred that had previously resulted in violence toward Igbos.
This fueled the undisciplined actions of the counter-attacking federal troops against Nigerian civilians. Second, although the Federal authorities worked hard to suppress the news, people fleeing Asaba spread the word, and the killings of large numbers of people of Igbo ethnicity bolstered Biafran claims that the war was one of genocide. This helped steel the Biafrans’ resolve to continue the eventually hopeless war, and so represents a pivotal moment that directly contributed to the progress of the conflict.
More broadly, the Asaba killings raise issues that go beyond the tragedy of one community. The war has left a bitter legacy; many today argue that the violence and ethnic hatred endemic in contemporary Nigeria are partly attributable to an institutionalised unwillingness to come to terms with it. Thus the Asaba events are instructive because they provide a vivid case study of the unresolved consequences of ethnic tension and state violence which have created barriers to reconciliation.
Today, our work suggests it is time to “recalibrate” the nation’s collective memory, putting Asaba’s fate in its rightful place as a key event in the Civil War. Martina Osaji, who dragged the body of her father Leo Isichei from among the dead, speaks for many in Asaba: “There is nothing you can do to replace my father — no amount of compensation. I would rather have my father and my other relations. But I want the world to know this happened; that’s the only way we can remember them. God knows why I had to survive—for me to have a story to tell. And that is why I’m telling you now.”
Thus the people of Asaba rightfully demand an acknowledgment of the sacrifices they made while expressing support for Nigerian unity. And they also wish to use their experience as a way to open dialog and invite reconciliation – so important in this Nigerian Centenary Year. Our research shows that wartime atrocities are complicated. For instance, several survivors recalled that amid the brutality, individual Federal officers and soldiers stepped in to prevent violence and protect civilians.
Some, notably a Captain named Matthias, are remembered in Asaba for their actions, as they rose above the horror being inflicted – warning people to escape, shielding civilians, or even spiriting whole families out of town. Such stories show that good may transcend ethnic hostilities, and can offer opportunities for moral reflection. It is important to acknowledge the horrors of history; accounts of “upstander” soldiers help us understand our common humanity, making repetition of evil less likely.
We are documenting all our research on our project website: www.asabamemorial.org, where readers may find a short video based on our interviews, our longer academic articles, and information about the ongoing research. We invite readers to peruse our work, consider how much Asaba is owed, and reflect on ways to avoid such horrors in the future.
– S. Elizabeth Bird S. is Professor and Chair of Anthropology at the University of South Florida, while Fraser M. Ottanelli is Professor and Chair of History at the University of South Florida.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/10/revisiting-1967-asaba-massacre/ | 2,492 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999975 |
By Mary Adeoye
Folu is one of the beneficiaries of our advocacy training. Her only sister, Pelu, died from an abortion in her final year in the university. She was a bright student, 95th percentile in her class, a student union executive but she lacked basic information about safe sex or contraceptives. Her sister’s story fueled Folu’s interest in the advocacy training by project FPforCampuses.
No real names were used to protect the confidentiality
A few weeks ago, I was at the Lagos State University (LASU) with a team of other young people to train select LASU students on using SMART advocacy for SRHR inclusion in school health facilities leveraging on media, dialogues, and storytelling to promote the implementation of reproductive health policy in the institution.
This project named FPforCampuses is an advocacy intervention funded by Women Deliver. I must say this is one of the most interesting, challenging and lessons-filled projects I have ever worked on and I will like to share my insights and lessons learned. If your projects are designed for young people in tertiary institutions, you may find these insights very useful
Young People’s Sexual & Reproductive Health Interventions in Nigeria
When advocating for the promotion of sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people, it is important to consider young people as people who have human rights. Young people should always be meaningfully engaged if not we will not have interventions and policies that holistically cater to our needs.
READ ALSO: Senate President seeks review of academic curricula of schools
From my experience implementing FPforCampuses and working with other young, I can say most young people do not have adequate information, life skills, and resources to live healthy and productive lives, especially when evolving from adolescence to adulthood. There are diverse interventions for infants, nursing mothers, the elderly while forgetting there is a period between infantry and adulthood.
Our Population Structure is a huge Opportunity
According to UNFPA, in West and Central Africa, 64% of the population is under 24 years, which implies that more than half of the population in West and Central Africa are young people. This is one of the best things that can happen to a nation. If this teeming population has access to Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), Safe Spaces for discussing issues around pregnancy, contraception, gender-based violence and all issues that our society has succeeded in making controversial and taboos then we can start talking about harnessing the demographic dividend. But as it stands today, CSE is absent in our tertiary institutions leading to a high rate of unmet need for contraceptives, this is directly related to high rates of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions.
Now let’s bring this home if Nigeria is serious about investing in young people’s future and attaining Universal Health Coverage then promoting young people’s access to sexual health information and services is key and very crucial. Young people must be taught to be sexually responsible and allowed to make informed decisions about their reproductive health. Sad to say, this is not our reality yet as SRHR services are often inadequate, inappropriate or unavailable for young people.
Tertiary Institutions have Essential Roles to Play.
While almost all tertiary institutions in Nigeria have health facilities for their students, most if not all completely leave out Sexual Reproductive Healthcare, because why should a school give provide the student with information on how to have safe sex, it is not their business, is it? Through our project, we engaged over 100 students across 3 tertiary institutions in Lagos who confirmed that their school clinics do not offer SRHR services.
They discussed with us how they had to depend on student doctors and patent medicine vendors for advice on SRHR issues. Almost all of us have heard stories or know a girl in Nigeria that has died from abortion. If young people are appropriately informed about birth control options they would most likely not have issues with unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortions.
Let’s take a more critical look, most universities, colleges, and polytechnics have their students in thousands. If the reproductive health needs of this population are met, then we would be a step closer to reducing the fertility rate which translates into harnessing the demographic dividend.
My Personal Lessons and Recommendations
- Messaging and Communication are very Key: Without mincing words, talking about biases and cultural barriers, we had our share and real-life experiences. We learnt the importance of using the culturally-acceptable language for family planning in our messaging. By changing our messaging and adopting life planning and sexual reproductive health services for young people in our project proposal, we were able to record success with our engagement with the third tertiary institution we approached. KNOW your audience and use the RIGHT language.
- Don’t Boycott Authority: Tertiary institutions have a working system and bureaucracies you must follow. Don’t jump the gun, you can’t go straight to the student bodies without an endorsement from the school authorities. In our case, the key actors were the Vice-Chancellor, Dean of Student Affairs, Dean of School of Communications, School Counselors and they were pivotal to the success of our project.
- Engagement of Project Beneficiaries: When implementing SRHR interventions, it is important to actively engage the beneficiaries of the project before, during and after the implementation of the project. Do not program FOR them but WITH them.
- Interventions need to be more all-inclusive- Interventions for young people should be holistic: Young people want to access a wide range of services that help improve their health and wellbeing. Let us begin to integrate SRHR services into existing health systems such as the HIV/AIDS Unit, FP Unit, Counselling Unit etc. Have you thought of a One-Stop-Shop that has all the fun stuff, career help, SRHR counsellor, cooking club, film review, a therapist even a Library?
- Young people are media natives- to increase demand generation for SRHR among young people consider leveraging on social media, fun activities such as edutainment, videos, plays, and storytelling.
- Leverage on Existing Platforms: work with student bodies that have solid structures to sustain your project even after it’s lifespan. For FPforCampuses, we worked with the Communication Students’ Association (COSA) and the Association of Campus Journalists (ACJ)
About Author: Mary Adeoye is a Reproductive and Sexual Health enthusiast passionate about creating high impact interventions focused on improving the health and productivity of women, girls and young people. She is a Women Deliver Young Leader, Carrington Youth Fellow 2018. You can connect with her on LinkedIn – Mary Adeoye or Twitter and Instagram @shessograced.
FPforCampuses builds the capacity of tertiary institution students to use media, dialogue and storytelling to develop advocacy messages to push for the proper translation of National Reproductive Health Policy into action in their school health facilities. The first phase was funded by Women Deliver and implemented by five young people; Mary Adeoye (Women Deliver Young Leader), Elizabeth Williams (SRHR Advocate), Jumoke Adebayo (Young Midwifery Leader), Dolapo Olaniyan (SRHR Advocate) and Dr Bode Ekerin (SRHR Advocate)
Women Deliver is a leading global advocate that champions gender equality and the health and rights of girls and women. Women Deliver’s advocacy drives investment – political and financial – in the lives of girls and women worldwide. The Women Deliver Young Leaders Program connects outstanding young advocates with the platforms, the people, and the resources that can amplify their influence on a larger scale. With an emphasis on sexual and reproductive health and rights, Women Deliver elevates the work of young people taking a stand for gender equality.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/10/olu-falae-borrowing-not-bad-but-what-for-from-who-on-what-terms/amp/@op | 1,626 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999983 |
6 Reasons Why Python Is Suddenly Super Popular
Python is a general-purpose language — sometimes referred to as utilitarian — which is designed to be simple to read and write. The point that it’s not a complex language is important.
You may or may not know, but the Python programming language is not young by any means. While it’s not quite as old as some of the other languages, it’s still been around for longer than most people think. It was first released in 1991, and, though it has changed considerably over the years, it’s still used for the same things it was back then.
In fact, that’s just one of the reasons why it has become so popular in recent years — it’s a production-based language meant for enterprise and first-class projects, and it has a rich history. It can be used for just about anything, which is why it’s considered so versatile. You can build Raspberry Pi applications, scripts for desktop programs and configure servers all via Python, but it’s not limited to just those tasks.
With Python, there really are no limits.
What Makes Python Special?
Python is a general-purpose language — sometimes referred to as utilitarian — which is designed to be simple to read and write. The point that it’s not a complex language is important. The designers placed less of an emphasis on conventional syntax, which makes it easier to work with, even for non-programmers or developers.
Furthermore, because it’s considered truly universal and used to meet various development needs, it’s a language that offers a lot of options to programmers in general. If they begin working with Python for one job or career, they can easily jump to another, even if it’s in an unrelated industry. The language is used for system operations, web development, server and administrative tools, deployment, scientific modeling and much more.
But, surprisingly, many developers don’t pick up Python as their primary language. Because it’s so easy to use and learn, they choose it as a second or third language. This may be another reason why it’s so popular among developers.
Plus, it just so happens that one of the biggest tech companies in the world — Google — uses the language for a number of their applications. They even have a developer portal devoted to Python, with free classes offered including exercises, lecture videos and more.
In addition, the rise in the use of the Django framework for web development and a decline in popularity of PHP has also contributed to Python’s success, but, ultimately, it’s the perfect storm — just the right amount of developer and official support, as well as demand.
Here are some of the less obvious reasons why Python has become super popular in recent years:
1. Python Has a Healthy, Active and Supportive Community
For obvious reasons, programming languages that lack documentation and developer support just don’t fare well. Python has neither of those problems. It’s been around for quite some time, so there’s plenty of documentation, guides, tutorials and more. Plus, the developer community is incredibly active. That means any time someone needs help or support, they can get it in a timely manner.
This active community helps ensure that developers of all skills levels — beginner to expert — always have somewhere to find support. And, as any experienced programmer or developer knows, when you run into development issues in the middle of crunch time, support can either make or break you.
2. Python Has Some Great Corporate Sponsors
It helps big time when a programming language has a corporate sponsor. C# has Microsoft, Java had Sun and PHP is used by Facebook. Google adopted Python heavily back in 2006, and they’ve used it for many platforms and applications since.
Why does this matter? Because if companies like Google want their team — and future developers — to work with their systems and apps, they need to provide resources. In Google’s case, they created a vast quantity of guides and tutorials for working with Python.
It contributes a growing list of documentation and support tools and provides free advertising for the language, at least in the development world.
3. Python Has Big Data
The use of big data and cloud computing solutions in the enterprise world has also helped skyrocket Python to success. It is one of the most popular languages used in data science, second only to R. It’s also being used for machine learning and AI systems and various modern technologies.
Of course, it helps that Python is incredibly easy to analyze and organize into usable data.
4. Python Has Amazing Libraries
When you’re working on bigger projects, libraries can really help you save time and cut down on the initial development cycle. Python has an excellent selection of libraries, from NumPy and SciPy for scientific computing to Django for web development.
There are even a few libraries with a more specific focus, like scikit-learn for machine learning applications and nltk for natural language processing.
Plus, huge cloud media services like Encoding.com allow compatibility with C-family languages. In other words, there are library-like tools that offer cross-platform support, which is a huge benefit.
5. Python Is Reliable and Efficient
Ask any Python developer — or anyone that’s ever used the language — and they’ll agree it’s speedy, reliable and efficient. You can work with and deploy Python applications in nearly any environment, and there’s little to no performance loss no matter what platform you work with.
Again, because it’s versatile, this also means you can work across several domains including — but not limited to — web development, desktop applications, mobile applications, hardware and more.
You’re not bound to a single platform or domain, and it offers the same experience everywhere.
6. Python Is Accessible
For newcomers and beginners, Python is incredibly easy to learn and use. In fact, it’s one of the most accessible programming languages available. Part of the reason is the simplified syntax with an emphasis on natural language. But it’s also because you can write Python code and execute it much faster.
Whatever the case, it’s a great language for beginners, so it’s where a lot of young developers are getting their start. More importantly, experienced developers aren’t left by the wayside, as there’s plenty to do.
Bio: Kayla Matthews discusses technology and big data on publications like The Week, The Data Center Journal and VentureBeat, and has been writing for more than five years. To read more posts from Kayla, subscribe to her blog Productivity Bytes.
- Top 15 Python Libraries for Data Science in 2017
- 7 Steps to Mastering Data Preparation with Python
- Getting Started with Python for Data Analysis
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Wireless networking technology is the most innovative and in-demand form of networking and communications technology across places these days. Owing to the growing needs of the organizations adopting wireless infrastructures to accommodate mobility of their employees and customers, CCNA Wireless skills for networking professionals have become pertinent. CCNA specialist those who hold an attractive skill set with CCNA Wireless training and certification at hand, are most in-demand in the enterprises. The special skill set that is required in the industry is to put up a secure wireless network and optimize it to function securely in a particular environment. The demands of the modern network infrastructure and information technology have changed dramatically. Unlike earlier times, when cables were the main aspect of networking, mobile access servers and other wireless devices have completely transformed the networking sphere. It even has its affect on business sectors now, which can be seen as a widespread use of handheld and portable devices. Due to the immense popularity of the wireless network, the need of IT professionals with wireless credentials has risen. This has tremendously increased the requirement of CCNA Wireless training programs among networking professionals. IT professionals are seeking CCNA Wireless training courses, to increase their employability. CCNA Wireless training courses A professional certification program, like CCNA Wireless training and certification course, leading to proficiency in wireless technologies is worth considering, especially for the professionals those who are aspired to attain a career in Cisco. The Cisco Certified Network Associate Wireless (CCNA Wireless) certification equips IT professionals with the fundamental knowledge and expertise to implement, configure and secure wireless Cisco networks. These courses are designed mainly for network administrators, associates and wireless support specialists. Upon completion, professionals are capable enough to effectively monitor, configure and troubleshoot all basic tasks of a Cisco WLAN in small and medium- sized enterprise networks. Different methodologies to get CCNA Wireless training and certification program: There are various different methods developed these days, for seeking any IT training and certification course. Some of the few methods to attain this credential are: • Cisco CCNA virtual (Instructor Led-live Virtual) training
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Members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, at St Peter’s Square Rome, during their visit to Pope Francis at theVatican.
By Obi Nwakanma
Sam Omatseye’s piece in the Nation, “The Ghost of Biafra,” this past week adds to the growing discussion on the inevitable impact of the new secessionist movement in important ways. The kernel of that column is that Nigeria as a nation runs in vain from its obligation to effect closure on the Biafran experience. Omatseye, of course skirts certain issues, and fudges a few, including the important question he raises: “how could a people knowing that they did not have the arms still plunge to war against an overwhelming armed opponent?”
In other words, why did the leaders of the East fight, when they knew they were outgunned? The simple answer is that (a) The East fought to survive. They did not levy war against Nigeria. War was levied on the East when the federal side reneged on the terms of peace arrived at in Aburi.
The Federal Government initiated the war on July 6, 1967, by opening two fronts from the North: the Nsukka front and the Gakem front. Ojukwu evacuated Enugu, and responded with a defensive strategy; (b) as a means of easing the pressure of attack from the North, Biafra’s Liberation Army led by Brigadier Victor Banjo and Colonel Emma Ifeajuna as his Chief of Staff opened the Midwest corridor to foreclose the attack formation already planned from Jebba by the Federal forces, through the Midwest using the Military Division already established for that purpose led by Murtala Muhammed, circumventing Benin through Auchi, moving through Agbor to the East.
The movement of the Biafran forces on August 9, into the Midwest, ruptured that plan. The Liberation Army would have arrived Ibadan and secured Lagos, and the tides of the war would have been dramatically turned, but for the extraordinary meeting between Banjo, Ifeajuna, and Mr. Bell, the Deputy British High Commissioner in Benin City as the Biafrans moved in a claw formation from Warri through Benin and through Auchi towards the West. Banjo’s dilemma, regarding the threat to bomb Lagos from the sea by the British frigate and turn the West into a theatre of war, and the threat to wipe out Banjo’s family still in Lagos left him with very little choices, other than to stymie the Liberation Army in the Midwest, order a haphazard withdrawal, and the rest is now history. As a matter of fact, one of the key actors in that event, the playwright and Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, already waiting in Ibadan with a “reception party,” has written about this in two of his very important memoirs, The Man Died and You Must Set Forth at Dawn.
But Nigerians hardly read these days, except for religious tracts. But Omatseye is right: War is a messy business. The after effects linger and take doggone time and supreme effort to heal. Nigeria has not healed from the last major war. It is that war that is the ghost that haunts Nigeria. That war is also the spectre rearing up today in the self-determination movements that are now challenging the basis of Nigerian nationhood. The IPOB/MASSOB and the Niger Delta Avengers are now raising the question of a “Biafraexit” – the call for a referendum on Biafra to constitutionally determine whether Biafra should be allowed to exit Nigeria as a separate nation.
The Separatist movement has been gathering momentum since 1999, and has been recently fueled by President Buhari’s adversarial, isolationist, discriminatory and conquistadorial domestic policies. It does now seem that the greatest threat to the continued survival of Nigeria is the president of Nigeria himself who seems bent on pursuing a narrow revanchist agenda, as well as the use of coercion to stop the secessionist movement which has grown as a counter force to his revanchism. Recently, the president declared that Nigeria’s “unity” was “not negotiable.” Happily many people, including Wole Soyinka, have told him that Nigerian unity is in fact negotiable. The president of course is not talking about real “unity.” He is talking about the unity which the late Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu once described as like the relationship between Jonah and the Belly of the whale.
Unity cannot be legislated. Unity is the product of a felt sense of shared destiny and values. And this is the point that the Biafran secessionists are making. I’d like to say this: every Nigerian must support the right of the Biafrans to seek self-determination through the plebiscitory process. The Biafrans must have their referendum, as permitted in International Law, on the question of “Biafrexit.” In 1964, the founding father of the modern Nigerian nation, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, wrote in the US Foreign Policy magazine, warning that though he preferred an organic nation, it might yet be better for the leaders of Nigeria to meet, and sit, and negotiate how “we will all go our separate ways peacefully” rather than push Nigeria, then lurching towards a bloodfest, to the ultimate evil of a civil war that would claim millions of Nigerian lives. Azikiwe was prescient in 1964, and I stand with the great Zik on this. It is important to settle this question of Biafra’s secession once and for all by peaceful means through a referendum. To that end, I think that those calling for secession should do the right thing: they should collect the required signatures and write the National Assembly to initiate the referendum, with a copy forwarded to the United Nations. Thereafter they should campaign for support. Here is what the Biafrans are arguing: they are arguing for a restructuring of Nigeria because Nigeria in its current formation is oppressive to their interest and survival; if Nigeria does not want to restructure constitutionally, they are arguing for peaceful exit through referendum. They are arguing that the federal government failed to meet its own obligation under the truce called “No Victor, No vanquished” by not fulfilling the promised three R’s in the old East, and by launching policies that have discriminated against, and isolated the East, especially the Igbo people, since the end of the war. They have argued that the Federal government has repeatedly failed to protect Igbo lives and property from the indiscriminate attack nation-wide, and therefore they no longer trust the government of Nigeria to secure their lives.
They have argued that as republican people, they have nothing in common, culturally, with the rest of Nigeria, and that they reserve the right to pursue their separate destiny, and redeem their society from underdevelopment and poverty using their talents and energy freed from the inherent draw-backs of a Nigeria with feudal and monarchical traditions and tendencies that squelches the Igbo spirit, and the spirit of their Biafran neighbors with long, cherished republican and democratic traditions. And they have also argued about the criminal exploitation and expropriation of resources from their oil rich region which has left the region very impoverished and ecologically devastated and they want the right of self-determination in order to have the power to restore the ecological balance of the delta. These are very powerful arguments, and I am quit
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/07/biafrexit/ | 1,626 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999952 |
By Aare Afe Babalola SAN,
The origin of Nigeria’s external debt dates back to 1958 when a loan of US$28 million was obtained from the World Bank.
The fund, which was made available to the Nigerian Railway Corporation, was for a five-year tenor to improve Nigeria’s rail system and to build a new line into the North-eastern province for the purpose of expansion in production and trade.
Later in 1964, the country obtained a loan of US$13.1 million from the Paris Club of Creditor Nations for the building of the Niger Dam. Subsequently, the much talked “jumbo loan” of $1billion was obtained from the International Capital Market, ICM, in 1978, thereby setting the slippery slope of the resort to huge foreign loans in motion and consequently changing the structure of Nigeria’s debts from mainly concessional loans to loans with harsher repayments terms.
Nigeria’s recourse to foreign loans first generated public outcry in 1985 when the then-military President, Ibrahim Babangida, obtained a $2.4 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund ‘to meet a critical balance of payments deficit’. Unfortunately, this trend has, till date, not abated with the external debt profile currently standing at N33 trillion as at March 2020.
How did we get here?
During its early years, Nigeria had no incidence of external indebtedness. Indeed, in comparative terms, Nigeria and, in fact, the African continent was rich – in cultural, economic, social and human resources. Consequently, there were no beggars.
This truth was confirmed with compelling finality by Lord Macauley in his address to the British Parliament on February 2, 1835 when he said: ‘I have travelled across the length and breadth of Africa and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief.
‘Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage and therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient educational system, her culture, for if the African thinks that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation’.
However, Nigeria’s discovery of oil and the fall in oil prices in the late 1970s had a devastating effect on government expenses; it, therefore, became necessary for the government to borrow for the balance of payment support and project financing.
This increased the nation’s debt profile to US$2.2 billion in 1980. However, in 1991 it had risen to $33.4 billion, and rather than decrease, the nation’s debt profile continued to witness an upsurge, particularly with the spate of debt servicing and the insatiable desire of political leaders to obtain loans for the execution of dubious projects.
As revenue from oil production increased, Nigeria became attracted to predatory external creditors, leading to major borrowing by successive governments with the resultant huge external burden on the country. Consequently, this debt burden became an endless abyss as a substantial amount of oil revenue were expended on servicing the accumulated external debts annually, to no end.
Therefore, Nigeria’s humongous debts ratio is directly linked to the decades of misrule and financial imprudence of its military and political leaders.
With incessant foreign debts being accumulated by these successive governments, Nigeria became caught up on crippling foreign debt crisis which, till date, compromised its economic progress and political stability in spite of the paradox of being an oil-exporting country.
In 1990, Nigeria’s external debt rose to over US$33.1 billion and by the end of 2004, the Central Bank of Nigeria noted that Nigeria’s debt stock had reached almost $36 billion out of which $31 billion was owed to the Paris Club of Creditors while the rest was owed to multilateral, commercial and other non-Paris Club of creditors.
Without a doubt, from 1958 when Nigeria obtained the World Bank’s railway development loan of US$28 million, Nigeria’s debt repayment history started on a soft, tolerable level until it became a hard bargain years later. Matters worsened in 2003 when one of Nigeria’s creditors, the Paris Club, demanded US$3 billion annually for debt service payment. By 2004, the country resorted to seek for debt relief to tackle the debt crises and the resultant economic crises when other options failed to yield the desired result.
In reaction to the debt relief granted to Nigeria, former President Olusegun Obasanjo reportedly noted that: ‘…how did we get to the point where our debt burden became a challenge to peace, stability, growth and development? Without belabouring the point, we can identify political rascality, bad governance, abuse of office and power, criminal corruption, mismanagement and waste, misplaced priorities, fiscal indiscipline, weak control, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, and a community that was openly tolerant of corruption and other underhand and extra-legal methods of primitive accumulation’
The New Age Editorial of November 3, 2004, succinctly captured debt crisis in Nigeria thus: ‘… a country that borrowed $11 billion and has so far paid back $32 billion is still owing $34 billion? That means every dollar borrowed has been repaid almost three times over, yet about three times the initial amount borrowed is still being owed, creditors are having their cake and eating it in a vicious arrangement designed by IMF and its allies, the effect of which stifles growth and development in developing countries’
Nigeria’s recovered loots and debt crisis management
It is surprising that despite the repatriation of the Abacha loot amounting to about US$4.6 billion to Nigeria, the government still has not relented in its resort to obtaining foreign loans. Out of the repatriated Abacha loot, President Muhammadu Buhari’s government recovered US$322 million from Switzerland in 2017 and US$308 million from Jersey Island, United Kingdom in February 2020, with the condition that the funds will be utilized for three major projects in Nigeria, namely:
i. Lagos-Ibadan Express Road (Western Region)
ii. Abuja-Kano Road (Northern Region)
iii. 2nd Niger Bridge (Eastern Region)
In March, 2020, the Nigerian Senate approved a US$22.7 billion loan request and later in May, another US$5.513 billion loan request was sent by the President. Interestingly, the Director-General of the Debts Management Office reportedly stated that the coronavirus pandemic might incapacitate Nigeria from servicing its debts appropriately. This is, however, coming in the wake of over N25 billion internal and external donations which the country has received in its fight against the pandemic.
Regardless, Nigeria’s debt profile under President Buhari rose from N12.1 trillion in 2015 to a whooping N33 trillion in 2020! This is worrisome. I am of the opinion that the recovered Abacha loot can be adequately managed to sustain the deficit in the budget, rather than further plunging the nation into deeper mires of indebtedness.
There is no sustainable development in Nigeria to rationalise the stupendous indebtedness of the country. Rather, successive governments have continued to plummet Nigeria’s external debt portfolio to unfathomable degrees, and sadly, more funds will be borrowed in the nearest future.
There is, therefore, the need to look inwards and adequately manage the country’s debt ratio. First, the country should place firm restriction on obtaining any other loan. Nigeria is blessed with more-than-enough human and natural resources which, if adequately managed, is capable of sustaining the nation’s infrastructural and socio-economic ideals.
Second, there should be proper budgetary planning for the recovered Abacha loot repatriated to Nigeria. Without a doubt, if well managed, these funds will go a long way to patching whatever deficits inherent in the amended 2020 budget.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/06/nigerias-increasing-debt-worrisome-use-recovered-loot-as-alternative/ | 1,728 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999956 |
File: Malnurished children Photo used to illustrate the story
By Luminous Jannamike
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday said about 2.5 million children under the age of five in Nigeria are suffering severe acute malnutrition.
UNICEF’s nutrition specialist, Ms. Abigail Nyukuri, stated this at a two-day media dialogue on integrated and timely response to nutrition-related humanitarian needs, organised in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital.
According to her, an estimated 440,000 boys and girls under age five in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe States are affected by the disease in 2019.
Nyukuri, who revealed that the prevalence rates of severe acute malnutrition in the three Northeastern states are 11, six, and 13 percents respectively, blamed protracted access constraints and insecurity in the region for the worsening situation.
She said, “These protracted conditions have made the severe acute malnutrition situation even worse in Rann (Kala Balge), South Yobe, Magumeri, Jere, and Konduga LGAs.
“The poor nutrition situation is further exacerbated by poor food security situation, sub-optimal Water, Hygiene, and Sanitation practices and high Disease Burden.”
UNICEF warned that the key consequence of the abysmal feeding situation in several parts of Nigeria would be increased poverty levels in years to come.
“Malnutrition has dire consequences in the life of a child. It is a vicious circle because a malnourished child has issues with development, a compromised immunity status, and an impaired cognitive and intellectual capacities.
“All these and other issues combine to lead to increased poverty levels in the country because these children cannot adopt productive lifestyles when they become adults. The loss to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as result is estimated at 16 percent annually,” Nyukuri said.
In his remarks, the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, noted that Nigeria’s future depends on producing children who are well prepared to take their place in tomorrow’s society.
He, however, said efforts were been made by the government through policies and structures which aim at managing the situation in the country.
Represented by Olumide Osanyinpeju, the ministry’s Deputy Director and Head of Child Rights Information Bureau, the Minister said, “Most, unfortunately, a large number of these children are at risk of deprivations of basic amenities, of which nutrition is inclusive; and especially in the Northern rural and hard-to-reach communities.
“The Federal Government has come to the realisation that lack of access to basic nutrition is an infringement on the rights of the child.
“Hence, efforts have been made by the government in the provision of policies and structures to manage malnutrition in the country through various programmes to support nutrition vis-à-vis Exclusive Breastfeeding, Complementary Feeding from six months, even the Home Grown School Feeding programme etc., which are all aimed at eliminating poor feeding practice for children.”
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/09/2-5m-children-in-nigeria-suffering-severe-acute-malnutrition-unicef/ | 674 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999939 |
Once, experts feared that young children exposed to more than one language would suffer “language confusion,” which might delay their speech development. Today, parents often are urged to capitalize on that early knack for acquiring language. Upscale schools market themselves with promises of deep immersion in Spanish — or Mandarin — for everyone, starting in kindergarten or even before.
Yet while many parents recognize the utility of a second language, families bringing up children in non-English-speaking households, or trying to juggle two languages at home, are often desperate for information. And while the study of bilingual development has refuted those early fears about confusion and delay, there aren’t many research-based guidelines about the very early years and the best strategies for producing a happily bilingual child.
But there is more and more research to draw on, reaching back to infancy and even to the womb. As the relatively new science of bilingualism pushes back to the origins of speech and language, scientists are teasing out the earliest differences between brains exposed to one language and brains exposed to two.
Researchers have found ways to analyze infant behavior — where babies turn their gazes, how long they pay attention — to help figure out infant perceptions of sounds and words and languages, of what is familiar and what is unfamiliar to them. Now, analyzing the neurologic activity of babies’ brains as they hear language, and then comparing those early responses with the words that those children learn as they get older, is helping explain not just how the early brain listens to language, but how listening shapes the early brain.
Recently, researchers at the University of Washington used measures of electrical brain responses to compare so-called monolingual infants, from homes in which one language was spoken, to bilingual infants exposed to two languages. Of course, since the subjects of the study, adorable in their infant-size EEG caps, ranged from 6 months to 12 months of age, they weren’t producing many words in any language.
Still, the researchers found that at 6 months, the monolingual infants could discriminate between phonetic sounds, whether they were uttered in the language they were used to hearing or in another language not spoken in their homes. By 10 to 12 months, however, monolingual babies were no longer detecting sounds in the second language, only in the language they usually heard. | http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/health/views/11klass.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=print | 476 | Family | 4 | en | 0.999872 |
List of Africa’s highest minimum wages per month
Nigeria‘s minimum wage of N30,000 ($39.04) was approved in 2019 following the passage of the Minimum Wage Bill by the National Assembly.
President Tinubu during a meeting with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), promised that the upward review of the minimum wage would be reflected in the next budget once the agreement is reached.
Here is the list of Africa’s highest minimum wages per month
Minimum wage: $426
Seychelles has the highest minimum wage in Africa at $426 per month.
Seychelles is an island nation off the coast of east Africa. The country is a tourist haven on the African continent and is made up of less than 500,000 people. Seychelles doubles as Africa’s most developed country and the richest country from the GDP per capita.
Minimum wage: $360
Morocco has the second highest minimum wage in Africa at $426 per month.
Morocco’s biggest employment sector is agriculture, the country also has a significant presence in manufacturing, tourism, mining and others. In 2018, Morocco was announced as the most visited country in Africa beating South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and others to clinch the position.
Minimum wage: $325
Libya has the third highest minimum wage in Africa at $325 per month.
The Libyan labour industry has some of the most stable laws guiding labourers’ earnings on the entire African continent, the law provides for an eight-hour-a-day work life. Nonetheless, the industry has been claimed to be largely discriminatory offering secluded treatments to citizens and other Africans, with some drawing some racial concerns. The country has its capital Tripoli.
Minimum wage: $255
The current minimum wage in Gabon in Dollars is $255 per month.
Gabon has a sufficiently standard labour industry, nonetheless, a majority of the laws on labour in the country are either not enforced or are ignored by employers. This has seen complaints from labourers working longer hours and even earning less than minimum wage.
Agriculture is the country’s biggest employer.
Minimum wage: $251
The Minimum wage in Mauritius is $251.
Mauritius has a very flexible labour sector with increased concentration on finance, tourism and other service-related sectors. The country has a population of over one million people with Port Louis being its capital and largest city.
Mauritius is currently home to some of the biggest financial service providers on the African continent.
6. South Africa
Minimum wage: $242
South Africa is the sixth highest-paying nation on the African continent. The country has a minimum wage of $242.
South Africa has transformed its labour laws since the apartheid era with free trade and an eventual open economy for all South Africans.
7. Equatorial Guinea
Minimum wage: $200
Equatorial Guinea’s minimum wage is currently $200.
Equatorial Guinea has large petroleum reserves.
Nonetheless, Equatorial Guinea’s Minimum Wage is the lowest amount a worker can be legally paid for his work.
The labour laws in Equatorial Guinea are somewhat dictatorial, with the absence of labour unions, strikes made illegal and the compulsory work-for-pay regime. Employees in Equatorial Guinea only have the option of reporting their employment grievances to form employers, including the government, to the Ministry of labour. The country’s capital is Malabo and has a population of over a million people.
Minimum wage: $198
Djibouti canceled its national minimum wage as part of the 2006 Labor Code in favor of occupational categories. Now, employers and employees set wages as part of an employment contract. Public sector workers have a minimum wage of 35,000 DJF, or about $198 a month.
Minimum wage: $178
The East African nation is the largest economy in East Africa and also stands as one of Africa’s strongest financial centres. Kenya has a stable labour industry with some of the most skilled labour forces when it comes to service offerings.
The Kenyan economy is the 3rd largest in Sub-Saharan Africa and is one of the richest nations in Africa by GDP per capita. Its capital, Nairobi, is one of Africa’s strongest financial cities and the biggest financial centre in East Africa.
Minimum wage: $172
Egypt’s legal monthly minimum wage is $172.
Some of the major business centers in Egypt include Cairo, Alexandria, and Sharm el-Sheikh.
Minimum wage: $170
The minimum wage in Algeria is $170.
Algeria is a petroleum-producing nation and is the largest nation in Africa by land mass.
The country has made considerable success in its labour relations over the years and has a stable economic atmosphere attracting thousands of workers from across North Africa and Asia. | https://thenationonlineng.net/list-of-africas-highest-minimum-wages-per-month/ | 1,022 | Career | 2 | en | 0.999954 |
Africans & Americans Are Not The Only Ones Stuck On Efficacy Of Chloroquine
Most high school science students are familiar with the functions of red and white blood cells. The white cells help fight off infections and other foreign invaders of our bodies. But sometimes, white cell cells overdo it, killing its own cells before infections spread to other organs. This is the advanced study of Cytokines.
Chloroquine is not the super drug against the activities of cytokine storms. Other drugs and steroids cortisone have been administered.
At the same time, Cytokine storms can cause organ failure: lung failure, Acute Respiratory Distress syndrome (ARDS), kidney failure and cardiovascular collapse or shock.
In cases where Chloroquine is already effective in treating malaria, lupus, juvenile arthritis and others, if influenza flu or corona viruses hit, it may be the early drug of choice. But not in later stages of Preexisting conditions: hypertension, diabetes and obesity where drug interactions may make the situation worse. This may be one of the reasons for the strenuous objection to Chloroquine for the treatment of covid-19.
Cytokines are small secreted proteins released by cells with some specific effect on the interactions and communications between cells.
Therefore, cell immediate response to foreign bodies is to eliminate or kill themselves as a protective mechanism so the disease doesn’t spread to other cells.
Certain kinds of cytokines trigger cell death. When you have many cells doing this at the same time, a lot of tissue can die. In COVID-19, that tissue is mostly in the lung.
As the tissue breaks down, the walls of the lungs’ tiny air sacs become leaky and filled with fluid, causing pneumonia and starving the blood of oxygen. Some patients recovered after receiving infusions of the rheumatoid arthritis drug Actemra, which blocks the cytokine Interleukin (IL-6) receptor, as one of several that soar in the COVID-19 cytokine storm.
When the lung becomes greatly damaged, respiratory distress syndrome follows. Then other organs start to fail. COVID-19 patients die from other problems too, like heart arrhythmias but Preexisting conditions make situations worse.
An exaggerated immune response to a new virus, bacteria, or another substance that is foreign to the body is, most of the times the cause. The symptoms of a cytokine storm are high fever, swelling and redness, extreme fatigue and nausea. At the same time, there can be organ failure like lung failure, Acute Respiratory Disease Syndrome, kidney failure, cardiovascular collapse or shock.
Before anti cytokine storms, studies indicated it may be possible to head off the storm altogether by blocking some of the chemicals that can trigger its release, which are called catecholamines. Catecholamines help the body respond to stress or fright and prepare the body for "fight-or-flight" reactions. The adrenal glands make large amounts of catecholamines as a reaction to stress. The main catecholamines are epinephrine (adrenaline), norepinephrine (noradrenaline), and dopamine.
Aldosterone affects the body's ability to regulate blood pressure. It sends the signal to organs, like the kidney and colon, that can increase the amount of sodium the body sends into the bloodstream or the amount of potassium released in the urine.
While some medical researchers label it a genetic predisposition, others have blamed the hostile environment against Africans in Diaspora as the cause of higher stress than others. But such blame does not explain the susceptibility to the same fatal diseases in Africa.
Anyway, most scientists would first prefer good nutrition before treatment. Luckily, most African foods are "organic food" closer to the farms. But the acquired exotic tastes of processed foods from foreign countries makes it worse. Ironically, "organic foods" are expensive overseas.
Patients who were taking medications that block the release of catecholamines -- as some kinds of blood pressure drugs do, early before their diagnosis, were about 20% less likely to need to be placed on a ventilator after their diagnosis, compared to others, an effect that was statistically significant. Therefore, finding the effective prophylactic or therapeutic agents would help to control a pandemic of avian influenza (in A H5N1) viruses.
Previous reports have demonstrated that the high mortality in humans infected with avian influenza A H5N1 is partly due to acute lung injury or the result of severe condition: Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). There are few treatment choices for ARDS, aside from mechanical supporting equipment and experimental treatments. The use of cortisones is controversial.
Even histamine inhibits the release of Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF), in a dose-dependent manner by stimulating the synthesis and release of IL-10. Chloroquine acts to raise the lysosomal pH, leading to the inhibition of both the fusion of autophagosomes with lysosomes and lysosomal protein degradation. However, most government-sponsored clinical trials have shown insufficient prophylactic effects against influenza infection, which is consistent with other studies.
To test this, they have focused efforts on chloroquine (CQ), as CQ is the only oral clinical drug that is known to be an autophagy inhibitor7. Currently, CQ and its hydroxyl form, HCQ, are used as anti-inflammatory agents for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythematosus and amoebic hepatitis.
If Chloroquine could be effective for some people in the earliest stages of Covid-19, what about those with Preexisting conditions already in the later stages? Fatal diseases or flu like Covid-19 take more African Lives in Europe and America with high casualties in Africa as seen in Ebola.
Though, Nigeria found that Madagascar “CVO reduced cough frequency with the maximum dose tested, producing an effect equivalent to that produced by the centrally acting cough-suppressant, dihydrocodeine,” .https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/nigeria-madagascars-herbal-drink-cannot-cure-covid-19/1915948
Anyway, Russia has approved the first World Immunization by skipping stage Three Trial for wide testing. It has to be confirmed worldwide and the World Health Organization for its efficacy. Otherwise, it might turn out to be another Madagascar bubble before the USA November Election.
Disclaimer: "The views expressed on this site are those of the contributors or columnists, and do not necessarily reflect TheNigerianVoice’s position. TheNigerianVoice will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here." | https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/amp/news/290678/africans-americans-are-not-the-only-ones-stuck-on-efficacy.html | 1,443 | Health | 3 | en | 0.999865 |
By Sola Ogundipe
RECENTLY, in effort to eliminate Ebola at the source, through use of innovative disinfection technology, two “germ-killing robots” were deployed from the US to the JFK Hospital and ELWA Hospital both in Monrovia, Republic of Liberia, both hotspots of the Ebola disease outbreak.
The robots, technically known as TRU-D SmartUVC, were used to disinfect health care environments where Ebola patients are being treated. Good Health Weekly gathered that TRU-D is the only portable UV disinfection device on the market with Sensor360 technology, which calculates the time needed to react to room variables such as size, geometry, surface reflectivity and the amount and location of equipment in the room and effectively deliver a lethal dose of UV-C light during a single cycle from a single, central location in the room.
“It works by generating ultraviolet light energy that modifies the DNA structure of viral pathogens, like Ebola, so that they cannot reproduce. Viruses that cannot reproduce cannot colonise and harm patients,” the inventor, a tropical disease expert and medical anthropologist Dr. Jeffery L. Deal noted in an interview.
Deal and his colleague, Chuck Dunn, President and CEO of TRU-D LLC, respectively, spoke about the importance of TRU-D to environmental disinfection in
“TRU-D has been validated by more than 10 studies to be 99.99 percent effective in eliminating the most common pathogens that can use health care-associated infections.
After deploying germ-killing robots to Liberia to aid in battle against the Ebola Virus Disease, TRU-D SmartUVC inventor traveled to the Ebola hotspots with UV disinfection devices
TRU-D guarantees a pathogen-free environment for patients and health care staff. Deal, a Fellow in the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, has been training hospital staff to operate the devices in a number of hospital environments and monitor progress for successful disinfection.
“We developed TRU-D SmartUVC technology to combat the devastating effects ofhospital acquired infections,” Deal said.
“Unlike many diseases, Ebola strikes hospital workers more than any other group, making it the ultimate hospital acquired infection.”
With TRU-D, health care leaders in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Saudi Arabia are eliminating pathogens like Ebola, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, MERS, influenza, norovirus, Clostridium difficile, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA, etc., in all types of health care settings, including isolation wards, patient rooms, operating rooms, surgical suites, intensive care units, emergency rooms, public areas and ambulances.
“We know through extensive CDC-funded research specific to TRU-D conducted by thought leaders in epidemiology and infection prevention that TRU-D is effective at eliminating anypathogen by delivering a precisely measured UVC dose.
“As soon as we knew we could aid struggling hospitals in Liberia, our team came together and formulated a plan to get TRU-D on the ground. More than 200 TRU-Ds have been deployed to disinfect hospitals across the U.S. and internationally.
Between 10 and 15 percent of Ebola cases have been among health care workers. While most of this stems from contact with the patient, concerns exist that the physical environment can retain active microbes and be a risk. This device is used in the US to eliminate the organisms that may still reside on the walls, knobs, rails or any other exposed surface in health care settings. The robotic technology is capable of making the Liberian hospitals safer for the staff and for new patients.
It was developed by a team of engineers, physicians and industrial hygienists with the purpose of decontaminating entire rooms automatically and eliminating concerns that a contaminated surface was missed during routine cleaning.
We use an ultra-efficient narrow wavelength called UVC to flood the room with germicidal energy. UVC dosage is accurately measured and automatically adapts to kill organisms, even in shadowed areas.
UV disinfection technology and EVD control
This technology is designed to prevent the spread of the disease transmitted via contaminated surfaces in health care environments and is not a treatment or a cure. We believe that prevention is the best medicine.
The U.S. Army tested this particular wavelength against Ebola and found that the measured dose TRU-D delivers results in incredibly rapid destruction of the virus with its pathogen-specific dosing options.. We know it is perfect for use in this critical setting.
Multiple studies have already been published from U.S. and UK academic facilities of TRU-D’s ability to decontaminate rooms, almost always testing it against organisms that are much more difficult to kill in the environment than Ebola is.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/scientist-invents-robot-kills-ebola-virus/#sthash.usJec00U.dpuf | 1,026 | Politics | 3 | en | 0.999945 |
Jos – A medical expert, Dr Elizabeth Uzorji, has said that users of second hand clothes risk contracting candidiasis and hepatitis A, B and C.
Uzorji in Jos on Tuesday said that such diseases were air borne and could be contracted easily through the constant use of second hand clothes.
“Those that patronises second clothes do not have the slightest idea of who the first user was.
“Those selling the wares also do not take their time to wash these clothes very well before marketing them.
“So the lack of adequate information about the negative effects of these second hand clothes among our people has placed users at high risk and a major cause of concern to public health experts,” she said.
The medical expert decried the situation where some women buy inner wears from the second hand clothes dealers and declared that such women were at the risk of contracting vaginal infections.
She advised the people to ensure that the items were washed before being used, stressing that such step would go a long way in reducing the chances of such infections.
Uzorji specifically advised that such second hand clothes be washed with hot water and detergent before being used so as to reduce the chances of any infection. (NAN)
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/11/second-hand-clothes-cause-candidiasis-hepatitis-expert/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter | 273 | Health | 2 | en | 0.999985 |
British experts, on Thursday in London, warned that the growing online craze of buying and drinking human breast milk, among some fitness communities, fetishists and chronic disease sufferers, poses serious health implications. The human breast milk was being traded via websites in a lucrative market for adult buyers.
A Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, said there was little evidence to support claims, that the milk has any kind of super food that can boost health, fitness and ward off disease. Experts said the claims that it assisted with erectile dysfunction and cancer, have no clinical basis.
They warned that such raw and unpasteurised human breast milk can expose consumers to many serious infectious diseases, including hepatitis, HIV and syphilis. Sarah Steele, a Specialist at the Global Health and Policy Unit, Queen Mary University of London, said it was also potentially very hazardous, if used to replace a healthy balanced diet.
She said nutritionally, there was less protein in human breast milk than other milks like cow’s milk. “Potential buyers should be made aware that no scientific study evidences that direct adult consumption of human milk for medicinal properties offers anything more than a placebo effect.
“Failure of women to sanitise properly when producing milk, failure to sterilize equipment properly, and improper or prolonged storage and transportation of milk can also expose consumers to bacterial food-borne illnesses. “While many online mums claim they have been tested for viruses during pregnancy, many do not realise that such screening needs to be undertaken regularly,” she said.
Steele warned that sexual and other activities may expose the women to viruses that they may unwittingly pass on to consumers.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/06/human-breast-milk-on-sale-via-website-the-hazards-involved/#sthash.IOARKD1p.dpufA | 360 | Health | 2 | en | 0.999789 |
Imagine-A-Nation, Nigeria @ 64: Where Do We Go from Here?
As Nigeria celebrates its Independence Day after 64 years, it is time for us, as a people, to reflect on the journey ahead. Beyond the colourful parades and commemorative speeches, there is the need to imagine a nation we can all be proud of—a Nigeria shaped not by external circumstances but by the power of our thoughts, creativity, and determination—hence, the phrase “Imagine-A-Nation,” coined from the word imagination. Every great nation, including Nigeria, was first imagined before it was created. Nations are formed by the thinking and vision of their people, and today, more than ever, we need to harness this power of deep thinking to unlock innovation and drive the nation forward.
Imagine a Nigeria that allows extraordinary things to flourish, a nation where people live in peace and unity. A country where people are led by courage rather than titles, where hard work is valued, and prayer is accompanied by action. Imagine an environment where employers respect your closing time and faithfully pay overtime for extra hours worked.
Visualise a Nigeria filled with employable youths and vibrant companies ready to hire. Envision a country where power is consistently available and the roads are well-maintained, sparing you frequent trips to the mechanic.
Imagine a nation where clean water flows through the pipes and access to it doesn’t break the bank. We need to feel safe and secure, knowing our lives are valued in a Nigeria that retains its best talents instead of losing them to the Northern and Western hemispheres. A nation that prioritises education and learning, recognising that making a life is more important than merely making a living.
At the heart of this vision is a country that prioritises healthcare and the well-being of all its citizens. The Nigeria of our dreams is one where leaders speak honestly and act with integrity, acknowledging that their political ambitions are never worth the life of a single Nigerian.
Thoughts are the Seeds of Creation
Everything begins with a thought. Every invention, every solution, and every nation started in the minds of those who dared to imagine something better. Thoughts are not just fleeting notions; we must value the significance of ideas because they are powerful forces capable of transforming lives, communities, and nations. Thoughts are things—they first exist in the invisible realm of the mind but become visible when acted upon and created. From the towering skyscrapers in bustling cities to the innovative tech solutions being birthed in hubs worldwide, these are the products of someone’s imagination brought to life.
Whether he realises it or not, every man is a creator endowed with the ability to think and create. It is an intrinsic part of human nature. Our imagination is a place where limitations are rendered useless. It is a space where anything is possible. You can envision solutions, see the way forward, and build the future in your mind. This is why it’s called imagine-a-nation—in your thoughts, you can create images of the nation you desire, and transformation begins through these images.
Innovations are the Fruits of Imagination
While imagination is the seed, planting and nurturing are required to produce trees and fruits of innovative ventures. Moving thoughts from the mind to reality is not instantaneous; it takes time, effort, and patience. This is where many people falter. They have great ideas but are discouraged by the slow pace of development or the obstacles they face. But just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither will a great Nigeria emerge overnight. We must remain determined, consistent, and patient to develop our desired nation.
Creating takes time, and the process is often riddled with challenges. However, creators must understand that a product is only as good as the process. Every setback is an opportunity to learn, refine, and improve. You must continue to polish your gifts and talents, master your skills, and commercialise them to earn a living and a life from them and, in turn, contribute to the growth of your family, community, and nation.
In moments of economic downturn, like the one Nigeria is currently facing, it is easy to feel weighed down and lose hope, but it is in these moments that imagination becomes even more crucial. Do not allow the current situation to shape your thinking. Instead, let your thinking shape the situation. This is the time to create your economy through innovation, entrepreneurship, and excellence in all that you do.
From Deep Thinking to Nation Building
Deep thinking is the engine that powers imagination. Imagination fuels innovation, and innovation builds a Nation. It is not just about having an idea but about delving deeper, asking the hard questions, and seeking innovative and sustainable solutions. As Nigerians, we must embrace the discipline of deep thinking to overcome our challenges.
Take Nigeria’s tech industry as an example. It didn’t emerge because of favourable economic conditions or government incentives. It grew because young Nigerians dared to think differently, to imagine solutions that didn’t exist, and to act on those ideas. Today, we see the fruits of that imagination in the form of thriving start-ups, apps that solve real-life problems, and platforms that put Nigeria on the global innovation map. This is what happens when imagination (imagine-a-nation) meets with action (act-on-it)—it leads to transformation (transform-a-nation).
Building from the Inside Out
Building a nation starts with building yourself. Before we can expect change in our communities or country, we must first look inward and ask: What am I doing to contribute to this vision? The power of imagination begins on an individual level. You must be willing to envision a better version of yourself—one who constantly grows, learns, improves, and chooses to do what is right even when it is uncommon.
Once you have developed this mindset, the next step is to extend it to your family. Your family is the foundation of your community, and when strong families thrive, communities flourish. In this way, nation-building is not something that happens in isolation. It is a ripple effect that starts with the individual, spreads to the family, influences the community, and eventually transforms the nation.
Critical to this process is love, empathy, and compassion. These values are not just for personal relationships but are also crucial to leadership and governance. Good leadership is built on love and empathy for the people being led. As Nigerians, we must cultivate these values in our homes, workplaces, and communities. This love for others, combined with the power of imagination and action backed by consistency, determination and patience, will ultimately lead to a stronger, more united Nigeria.
As Nigeria’s economy continues to be uncertain, we must learn an important lesson: we cannot rely solely on external factors to shape our future. Instead, we must create our economy. This doesn’t mean isolating yourself from the larger national economy but taking charge of your life by utilising your skills, talents, and imagination to generate income and opportunities.
Opportunities await to be tapped in every sector, whether agriculture, technology or the creative arts. The key is thinking deeply, imagining new ways of doing things and executing those ideas excellently. Whatever you do, do it with all your heart and a commitment to quality. Excellence attracts success, and success breeds more success.
Network with other creators, collaborate, and build communities of like-minded individuals passionate about innovation and creativity. Together, you can achieve more than you could on your own.
The Future is in Our Hands
Michelle Obama once said that after enduring numerous struggles and triumphs, she had seen firsthand that being president does not change who you are; it reveals who you are. Our actions reflect our thoughts, and our thoughts stem from our character.
Ideas start as thoughts. We must write down our visions, making them plain so that those who see them can “run” with them, i.e. act on them. We must develop our thoughts to shape tomorrow’s society. Today is the time to ignite our spirits and become the discoverers and entrepreneurs who give tomorrow’s world its place in history.
Imagination builds Intellectual Capital, which Brian Tracy defines as “the most valuable of all factors of production.” In its essence, intellectual capital is the creative forces within us brought to life in practical reality, resulting in unprecedented growth for today’s society and a solid foundation for future generations.
We must also use imagination to create Moral Capital. Alejo José G. Sison defines moral capital as the excellence of character and the practice of virtues appropriate for a human within a socio-cultural context. Integrity is very crucial.
A “creator” exists within us—a sublime, timeless dynamism that can become a “brand,” enhancing the quality of life and its aesthetic dimensions. We must nurture a generation of “brands,” each unique and contributing to an overall flavour of excellence and development.
Every human being is born with a gift, but many never discover or maximise it. We must unveil our best selves to uplift society and find fulfilment. Every thinker is, potentially, a “palm tree,” holding vast potential for various contributions. We must bring that potential into reality.
As Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said, “The mind of a man is the capital of mankind.” Nigeria’s future rests in our hands. The progress we seek is attainable if we dare to imagine, act, and build the Nigeria of our dreams. The path ahead is challenging, but with collective effort, unity, and diehard faith in our abilities, we can transform Nigeria into the great nation it was always meant to be.
Poverty is a mindset, not a “pocket set”, and what goes into a man’s mind will eventually come out in his life. Therefore, we must shape our minds with thoughts of growth, innovation, and possibility. We must value and act on ideas, understanding that transformation begins with imagination.
As we celebrate another year of Nigeria’s independence, embrace the power of imagination and deep thinking to drive innovation, build yourself, build your family, and strengthen your community. Ultimately, we can create the nation we desire. The future is in our hands, and it begins in our minds.
According to a Chinese proverb, “Distance tests a horse’s strength, and time reveals a person’s character”. THE NIGERIA YOU WANT TO SEE IS THE NIGERIAN YOU HAVE TO BE.
Happy Independence Day, Nigeria. The journey continues.
Olaotan Fawehinmi is a multifaceted professional with expertise in marketing communications and a proven track record as an author and nation-building advocate. Based in Lagos, Nigeria, Olaotan can be contacted at [email protected]. | https://thenationonlineng.net/fg-explains-new-conditions-for-passport-acquisition/Imagine | 2,263 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999996 |
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that the developed world could learn lessons from the preventative measures taken by many African countries to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
“COVID-19 has made much slower progress (in Africa) than the predictions that were made at the beginning” of the crisis, Guterres said in an interview with RFL radio in France.
This has been largely thanks to the fact that “most African governments and organisations took in time very brave prevention measures which provide a lesson for some developed nations that did not,” he added.
There have been fewer than 3,000 COVID-19 deaths from 88,000 cases of the disease registered throughout the African continent, relatively low numbers compared to over 320,000 deaths worldwide.
Guterres also called for a more regularised easing of debt repayments for the poorest countries.
Last month, G20 and Paris Club creditor nations agreed to waive most debt payments for the world’s poorest countries in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus crisis, but Guterres called this move “insufficient”.
READ ALSO: Guterres Warns COVID-19 Could Send Millions In Africa Into ‘Extreme Poverty’
“We need to prepare targeted debt relief and a more comprehensive, more structural approach to avoid at all costs in the future a series of bankruptcies that could lead to depression” on the global level, he said.
A total of 41 African nations are involved and on Tuesday Mali became the first to secure a moratorium in debt payments from the Paris Club of creditor nations, a French finance ministry source said Tuesday. | https://www.channelstv.com/2020/05/20/un-chief-antonio-guterres-praises-africas-efforts-to-stem-covid-19/ | 345 | Health | 3 | en | 0.999992 |
The Ebola outbreak in DR Congo’s northwest is growing, according to health officials, sounding the alarm weeks after the country officially declared an end to a separate Ebola epidemic which claimed over 2,000 lives.
There have been 54 confirmed cases since June 1 in Mbandaka, a transport hub in Equateur province, including 22 deaths, according to figures released by the country’s health ministry on Friday.
There were four additional suspected cases.
The outbreak is DR Congo’s 11th since Ebola was identified in 1976.
On June 25, the vast central African country officially declared an end to an Ebola epidemic that broke out in the east two years ago, which Health Minister Eteni Longondo said was “the longest, most complex and deadliest” in the country’s history.
The two epidemics have no common viral strain, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The WHO called the latest figures “of great concern”, saying that it had identified 56 cases by Thursday.
“It is now surpassing the previous outbreak in this area which was closed off and controlled at a total of 54 cases,” said Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, referring to a 2018 Ebola outbreak in Equateur in which 33 people died.
– Remote villages –
The epidemic is spreading from Mbandaka’s urban centre to surrounding remote villages in forests along the Congo River, some of which can only be accessed by canoe or all-terrain vehicles.
“There are infections in several villages,” a local official, Moraliste Nembetwa, told AFP.
The virus is passed on by contact with the blood, body fluids, secretions or organs of an infected or recently deceased person.
The death rate is typically high, ranging up to 90 percent in some outbreaks, according to the WHO.
Serge Ngalebato, a doctor at the Bikoro hospital, said the epidemic affects “an area with fragile health”.
“In 2018, we had the Ebola epidemic. In 2020, the measles epidemic. As I speak, we have five cases of polio,” he said.
The country is facing a measles outbreak which has killed more than 6,000 people since early last year, as well as recurring flare-ups of cholera and malaria.
DR Congo is also struggling with the new coronavirus, with 8,249 cases including 193 fatalities.
WHO officials worry that because of these competing health crises, there could be a lack of funding for the Ebola epidemic.
“We have less than two million dollars in our account,” said WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib about funding for the current Ebola outbreak.
– ‘Put lives at risk’ –
DR Congo’s partners and donors may be cautious over worries that an injection of money could create fertile ground for conflicts of interest, a source close to the United Nations told AFP.
An investigation by The New Humanitarian last month found that payments to security forces and job kickback schemes “may have jeopardised humanitarian operations and put lives at risk”.
The influx of money to combat the spread of the virus in the east “has raised people’s expectations”, the source said.
Ebola experts said the experience of the eastern outbreak will be vital for informing further action.
Officials must “listen and involve communities in time, in dialogue and planning the response… otherwise we risk being counter-productive,” said Abdou Dieng, head of the United Nations Emergency Ebola Response.
Health authorities have launched a vaccination campaign, as was done in the east where two experimental vaccines were widely deployed and more than 320,000 people received a jab.
“More than 8,000 people have been vaccinated,” said Alhassane Toure, a vaccination coordinator.
“All the affected health zones have been covered by the vaccination.”
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/07/ebola-cases-rise-in-new-dr-congo-outbreak/ | 849 | Health | 2 | en | 0.999979 |
Return To Our Character & Morality Or Perish For Money: Iwa Rere Lere
There Is no other way to put it, it all boils down to African values, integrity, discipline, order and standard without which, chaos reigns. We were reminded by a childhood friend of Tunde Nightingale's old song that: Iwa Rere Lere! No better time than these days to remind the world that African good character and morality have their rewards. This may be contrary to what many Youths and their old voracious looters believe today. Money, by any means, is not all.
Old African cultures respect those who exude a solid reputation. Honor can be sought and pursued with money but it only lasts as long as the money is there. The chances are, if honor can be bought with money, new money will displace and buy honor that is for sale. The reason is money only has value at a point in time unlike generational wealth of honor that increases in value over time.
Ìwà Omolúàbí (Integrity): Someone with Integrity is a person of his words. If you have all the wealth in the world without integrity, you are empty. Integrity combined with Iwa (Character) is Omolúàbí. "We look for three things when we hire people: intelligence, initiative or energy, and integrity. If they don't have the latter, the first two will kill you, because if you're going to get someone without integrity, you want them lazy and dumb.” Warren Buffett, American Investor.
Age is highly respected in African culture for their wisdom and history of events. Nevertheless, achievement is revered and a young man who knows how to wash his hands will eat with the elders. Akínkanjú or Akin (Valour), the General or Balógun is second-in-command to the leaders in Yoruba land. Balógun are people that can lead people to war. They lead us with great courage in the face of danger, especially in battle.
Unfortunately, those places we used to refer to as civilized climes have turned out to be hypocrites and even worse savages against their people targeted because of how they look. The irony is not lost on people of goodwill around the world. Easier to criticize others beyond our noses. This is why Yorùbá people usually say when you set out to look for money and you meet honor on the way then you don't need the journey anymore, because if you get the money, you will still use it to acquire honor.
Eni nwa owo lo to pade Iyi lona, ti o ba ri owo tan, iyi naa lo ma fi ra. This is why the rich and famous would pay anything to meet Asantehene, Oba, Igwe, Sultan, high Chiefs, Kings and Queens asking for grace and honorary titles. The insatiable need to pursue honor after accumulating all the money in the world may baffle some of us but the need to be recognized beyond money is worldwide. What is surprising is that they turn to Asantehene, Oba, Igwe, Sultan and high Chiefs without their amount of money.
The erosion of our value system in many world cultures has pushed accumulation of money above the value ladder. There are values that are sacrosanct to the culture and survival of people even before money replaced trade by batter. Some countries have more rigorous laws against moral turpitude than financial or white collar crimes. But if you want to predict the end of a country, watch how moral decadence is used to make money.
Rich people in rich countries keep a low profile for peace of mind. Billionaires and millionaires can easily mix with the crowd without heavy or light security. Money, even made legally can fetch you enemies, jealousy and subjugation to suspicion or audit. One U.S investor that bragged of raising drug prices got into such trouble. Even when you spend so much on security in Nigeria as a rich man, you cannot trust informants to kidnappers within your households.
There was some healthy air of relief when young African men and women took Indigenous cultural plays and local music to international level. They made foreign incomes while politicians wasted income from natural resources. Unfortunately, the same moral decadence that sank Nigeria to the world's poverty capital, has soiled every profession including the entertainment industry. In defense of our favorite champions of turpitude, we justify it with: others are worse.
Easy come easy go: money, no matter how much we make, has a limited lifespan for you and your family. It only takes a member to eventually squander looted money. Even more disappointing, we never have enough to replace us on the sick bed or buy death. Unfortunately, the way to fame and money these days is to stage outrageous behavior that everyone will be talking about. The elite class are full of drug dealers, bandits, ritualists, terrorists and vagabonds preying on others.
Many are racing to the bottom as the rest of us wonder how low we could go. The President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari almost lost his life in Kaduna as a retired General before he was taunted as a negotiator for Boko Haram. He also criticized the Jonathan Government Army Chief for killing Northerners. The same terrorist organizations are now threatening to kidnapped him as a President.
If the President of the country is not safe from kidnappers, who is? Boko Haram acted with impunity around his home State while on vacation, sending him warning signals. The wife was staying outside the country while speculations were that she felt unsafe at home. Actually, Buhari hardly lives at home as he has become an international traveler with more planes than many Airlines. This cannot be the General who campaigned to eliminate the terrorists.
The Terrorists did not threaten civilian Government of Jonathan that paved the way for Buhari on a silver platter, the way militrician Government of Nigeria is being threatened for lacking character, morality, integrity and values.
Farouk Martins Aresa @oomoaresa | https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/311133/return-to-our-character-morality-or-perish-for-money-iwa.html | 1,256 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.99999 |
MONROVIA (AFP) – Liberia is bracing for an upsurge in Ebola cases, following a grim World Health Organization assessment on Tuesday that the worst is yet to come in the fight against the killer virus.
While the WHO predicted an “exponential increase” in infections across West Africa, it warned that Liberia, which has reaped the lion’s share of misery with half of all fatalities, could initially only hope to slow contagion, not stop it.
The UN’s health arm upped the Ebola death toll Tuesday in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria to 2,288 out of 4,269 cases, noting nearly half of all infections had occurred in the past 21 days.
The WHO also evacuated its second infected medical expert, a doctor had been working at an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone.
Emory University Hospital in Georgia on Tuesday admitted an American who had contracted Ebola in West Africa, but the hospital has declined to confirm it was the WHO employee.
Ebola, transmitted through bodily fluids, leads to haemorrhagic fever and — in over half of cases — death. There is no specific treatment regime and no licensed vaccine.
The fresh WHO figures underscore Ebola’s asymmetric spread, as it rips through densely populated communities with decrepit public health facilities.
Speaking Tuesday, WHO’s epidemiology chief Sylvie Briand said that the goal in Senegal and Nigeria was now “to stop transmission completely”. Senegal has announced only one infection, while Nigeria has recorded 19 infections and eight deaths.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is battling a separate outbreak which has killed 32 in a remote northwestern region, according to figures from Saturday.
“But in other locations, like Monrovia, where we have really wide community transmission, we are aiming at two-step strategies,” Briand told a briefing in Geneva, “first, to reduce the transmission as much as possible and, when it becomes controllable, we will also try to stop it completely.
“But at this point in time we need to be pragmatic and try to reduce it in the initial steps.”
A day earlier the WHO had warned that aid organisations trying to help Liberia to respond would “need to prepare to scale up their current efforts by three- to four-fold”.
Before this year’s outbreak, it noted, Liberia only had one doctor to treat every 100,000 patients in a total population of 4.4 million people.
In Montserrado county containing Monrovia, there are no spare beds at the few Ebola treatment sites operating, the WHO said, describing infectious people being driven to centres, only to return home to create “flare-ups” of deadly fever in their village.
One thousand beds are needed — far more than the 240 currently up and 260 more planned, it said.
“It’s a war against this virus … I still have hope we can win this war,” the WHO’s Briand said.
– Border closure, controls –
On Monday the 17,000 residents of Liberia’s Dolo Town, 75 kilometres (47 miles) from Monrovia, were freed from a lockdown imposed more than two weeks ago.
The quarantine including a night-time curfew had been set up amidst a surge in Ebola infections, at the same time as West Point, a slum in the capital.
In the scramble to halt the contagion, some affected countries have quarantined whole regions. Several countries have stopped flights from affected areas.
African Union commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma called Monday for travel bans to be lifted “to open up economic activities”.
But other countries have stepped up limits on the movement of people travelling from West Africa. China, one of the region’s main investors, on Tuesday announced it was reinforcing checks on people, goods and vehicles, as well as mail, arriving from affected countries.
In Gambia, customs officials said they had closed the borders to Guineans, Liberians, Nigerians and Sierraleoneans — though not to neighbouring Senegal.
Italy announced a first possible case of Ebola — a woman who had recently returned from Nigeria.
And the United States offered $10 million to pay for medical workers and equipment as part of an African Union deployment to battle the outbreak.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/liberia-braces-worst-ebola-death-toll-jumps/ | 936 | Health | 2 | en | 0.999952 |
A US man died of a rare African virus in New Jersey after returning from West Africa but the risk of contagion is very low, US health authorities said Tuesday.
The man died of Lassa fever, New Jersey health authorities and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
Although the virus triggers hemorrhagic symptoms, it differs from Ebola, which has caused an epidemic in West Africa over the past year and a half.
The US man, who was not identified, had traveled from Liberia to Morocco before arriving at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on May 17.
He was hospitalized on May 21, after an initial hospital visit during which doctors failed to identify the virus.
It was only early Monday, hours before his death, that blood samples analyzed by the CDC tested positive for Lassa fever.
Tests for Ebola and other hemorrhagic fevers were all negative.
The patient was in an isolation unit at the time of his death, according to the CDC.
The CDC said it was working to identify those who came in contact with the patient, and that his close contacts will be monitored for 21 days to see if any symptoms emerge.
While common in West Africa, Lassa fever is very rare in the United States, where no person-to-person contagion has yet been reported.
The New Jersey case was the sixth known of its kind since 1969 involving a traveler returning from Africa, without counting those in recovery.
The last case was in Minnesota last year.
The virus is carried by rodents and transmitted to humans through contact with the urine or droppings of an infected rodent.
It is rarely transmitted among humans, through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person, through mucous membranes or sexual contact.
There are 100,000 to 300,000 cases per year in West Africa, including 5,000 deaths.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/05/us-man-dies-from-lassa-fever/ | 409 | Politics | 3 | en | 0.999985 |
By Eric Teniola
I HAVE just finished reading a book: What Britain Did To Nigeria by Max Siollun, who is an authority on issues that affect Nigeria. Mr Siollun has written several books on Nigeria, including Soldiers Of Fortune, Nigeria Politics from Buhari to Babangida and Nigeria’s Soldiers of Fortune-The Abacha and Obasanjo Years.
Expectedly his latest book: What Britain Did To Nigeria is very educative and informative, the 390page book is published by C.Hurst & Co.(Publishers) Ltd.
One of the articles in the book which caught my attention is titled “The Mistake of 1914”. The article summarises what one should know about Nigeria on the amalgamation that took place in 1914. Mr Siollun declared: “Perhaps no question makes Nigerians disagree as much as why Britain created their country.
Nigerians looking for deeper meaning for their country’s existence may be disappointed to find that there was none. Nigeria’s existence is little more than the outcome of balancing the colonial accounting books. In 1900 Britain created two countries with similar-sounding names. These were the protectorates of Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria.
“For 14 years these two countries were separately governed by different high commissioners. Lugard was Britain’s first high commissioner for Northern Nigeria and Sir Ralph Moor was his counterpart in Southern Nigeria.
The two colonies had different colonial personnel, legal systems, land tenure laws, educational policies and systems of governance. Their eventual amalgamation on January 1, 1914 was not sudden. It was the culmination of a process that, as we have seen, began 16 years earlier with the recommendation of the Niger Committee.
Although Lugard is credited as being the architect of Nigeria’s amalgamation, the process started long before he became Northern Nigeria’s high commissioner or the governor-general of the combined Nigeria in 1914.
These jolly laughing trading Black men
“Some British accounts of the differences between the people in the two Nigerians mentioned (with the usual poor a anthropological insight of that era) that ‘the inhabitants of Northern Nigeria are very different from the coast Negroes [Southern Nigeria]’ and flippantly described northerners as ‘black-faced Mohammedan Arabs with an admixture of negro strain’ and southerners as ‘these jolly laughing trading black men’.
Although this is a very simplistic summary, others offered a more realistic assessment. Sir George Goldie, who advocated the amalgamation of Southern Nigeria and Northern Nigeria, admitted that the two countries were ‘as widely separated government, customs, and general ideas about life, both world and the next, as England is from China’. Since Britain was aware of the sharp differences between the two Nigerias, why did it decide to amalgamate them anyway?
“Just as British entry into Nigeria was motivated by economic reasons, so was its amalgamation into one country. The duplication of finances and personnel in running two separate colonies in the same area was an impediment to administrative efficiency. The need for British colonies to be self-financing made amalgamation a priority.
Since Northern Nigeria had no coastline and was landlocked, it did not receive customs duties, as Southern Nigeria did. This disadvantage was exacerbated because Northern Nigeria imported goods from Southern Nigeria duty-free, and its costs for transporting its goods to Southern Nigeria for export were also high.
Since Southern Nigeria received customs duties and Northern Nigeria did not, a small percentage of customs revenue from the former was sent to the latter. Yet this was not enough to offset Britain’s cost of administering Northern Nigeria. Northern Nigeria had been running on a budget deficit for ten years, during which time its revenue was not enough to meet even half its cost of administration.
“As a result the British Treasury paid grants-in-aid to Northern Nigeria (totalling over £4 million) in the 14 years of its existence. These were non- refundable payments rather than loans, and were in addition to the £865,000 that the Treasury paid to the Royal Niger Company as compensation for the revocation of its charter.
Such dependency on the Treasury could not continue. Lugard tried to raise revenue by imposing taxation on Northern Nigeria but it was not enough. As early as 1904 he argued: ‘Northern Nigeria is as yet largely dependent on a grant in aid… I feel myself that economy can only be effected by the realisation of Mr. Chamberlain’s original scheme of amalgamating Northern and Southern Nigeria and Lagos into one single administration.
It is only in this way that Northern Nigeria, which is the hinterland of the other two, can be properly developed, and economies introduced into the triple machinery which at present exists. The country, which is all one and indivisible, can thus be developed on identical lines, with a common trend of policy in all essential matters.”
The material prosperity had been extraordinary
“Lugard’s advocacy of amalgamation ten years before it actually happened is not surprising. As Northern Nigeria’s high commissioner, he faced the problems of the colony’s dependency on grants from the Treasury and the need to find alternative revenue sources. Amalgamating the two Nigerias into one country would not only solve these problems for him, but carried with it a potential promotion, in that he would become the governor of the newly amalgamated country.
“For Lugard, the solution to his problems lay in Southern Nigeria. He observed: “Southern Nigeria, on the other hand, presented a picture which was in almost all points the exact converse of that in the North.
Here the material prosperity had been extraordinary. The revenue had almost doubled itself in a period of five years. The surplus balance exceeded a million and a half. The trade of the interior had greatly developed by the construction of a splendid system of roads, and by the opening to navigation of waterways hitherto choked with vegetation … And so while Northern Nigeria was devoting itself building up a system of native administration and laboriously raising a revenue by direct taxation, Southern Nigeria had found itself engrossed in material development.
To be concluded…
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/07/the-mistake-of-1914/ | 1,305 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.99996 |
Steve Jobs: An ‘Unwanted’ Child
Adopted as an infant, he was grateful for the gift of life.
He died a devoted family man, with his wife and children at his bedside. But Steve Jobs didn’t come into the world as the object of his parents’ devotion. His birth was complicated and all too human in its details, and yet his story upends the notion that “unwanted” children are doomed from the start.
Jobs’ death saddened many of his admirers, who developed a firsthand appreciation for his commitment to excellence and viewed Apple’s explosive success as a bright spot amid unrelenting economic gloom. But I’ve always been more intrigued with the backstory of his closely guarded personal life, and thus welcomed Walter Isaacson’s newly released biography, Steve Jobs.
Isaacson does not disappoint. Not only will techies learn lessons about business leadership and innovation, this portrait provides rich insights into Jobs’ struggle to overcome the painful sense of abandonment that contributed to his trademark non-conformism.
From his childhood, Jobs suffered from the emotional wounds inflicted by his unmarried biological parents, who put him up for adoption. Like many such children, he was “unwanted.”
Jobs’ personal history testifies to children’s need for family stability — even for an individualist like Jobs. However, the reader also learns that, contrary to the gloomy predictions of abortion-rights supporters, “unwanted” children consistently defy set expectations about their ability to succeed and find happiness, and the love of adoptive parents can make all the difference.
Decades later, Jobs would express gratitude that his mother didn’t abort him. And his own experience confirms that an unwanted child can ultimately reverse the pattern of male irresponsibility bequeathed to him by his biological father.
Isaacson traces Jobs’ effort to find his biological mother, a Midwestern graduate student raised in a Catholic family. “I wanted to meet my biological mother mostly to see if she was okay and to thank her, because I’m glad I didn’t end up as an abortion. She was 23 and went through a lot to have me,” Jobs told his biographer.
The founder of Apple had already made his mark when he located his mother, Joanne Simpson. The two had an emotional meeting, and Simpson tearfully apologized for putting him up for adoption. He learned that in 1955, at the time of his birth, she and his biological father had delayed marriage because of the objections of their extended families.
Subsequently, the couple did marry and had a daughter, the novelist Mona Simpson. But by then, Jobs’ adoption had been finalized. His biological father soon abandoned the family.
As a youngster, Jobs struggled to resolve his feelings of abandonment.
In one childhood experience described in the book, Jobs tells a close friend that he is adopted. She responds that his parents must not have “wanted” him. He rushes home to seek the reassurance of his adoptive parents, Clara and Paul Jobs, who insist that they chose him specifically and that he is very “special.”
In truth, Jobs was “smarter” than his parents, who maintained a modest home for him and a daughter, also adopted. The family attended a Lutheran church, but Jobs, ever the skeptic, questioned how an omnipotent God allowed for suffering in the world and rejected Christianity.
His specialness was noted during elementary school, when teachers, impressed with his superior intelligence, suggested he skip several grades.
Paul Jobs cut his son a lot of slack, allowing Steve to ignore parental orders and requirements. Steve chose an expensive private college, despite the family’s limited finances. But after a semester at Reed College, he realized it was too expensive for his parents and dropped out.
As Isaacson tells it, the competing experiences of abandonment and specialness produced a complex personal identity. He was a non-conformist in the business world, which worked to his advantage. But he could also be cruel and destructive.
Like many children who have been abandoned, Jobs would repeat the pattern as an adult.
When he learned that a live-in girlfriend was pregnant, he questioned whether he was the father. And despite a sense of gratitude that his own life had been spared in the womb, he considers an abortion as a solution to the pregnancy.
Once his daughter, Lisa, was born, he initially refused to acknowledge her as his own, but finally agreed to a paternity test and then began to pay child support.
Decades later, Lisa’s mother told Isaacson that “being put up for adoption left Jobs full of broken glass.”
A friend and co-worker at Apple made a similar observation: “The key question about Steve is why he can’t control himself at times from being so reflexively cruel and harmful to some people.
“That goes back to being abandoned at birth. The real underlying problem was the theme of abandonment in Steve’s life.”
Jobs disputed this diagnosis of his behavior, and he would later marry and have three more children. He and his wife celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary before his death. He came to regret his treatment of Lisa, and during her teenage years, she moved into her father’s household. However, the relationship remained tempestuous, though they patched up their differences before his death.
Jobs didn’t meet his biological sister, Mona Simpson, until both were adults, but the two immediately became close. After his death, Simpson offered a eulogy that reflected on the emotional scars inflicted by their biological father and the healing power of her brother’s love.
“Even as a feminist, my whole life I’d been waiting for a man to love, who could love me. For decades, I’d thought that man would be my father. When I was 25, I met that man, and he was my brother,” said Simpson.
Steve Jobs learned to become a committed husband and father, inspired, no doubt, by the generous example of his adoptive father. But his story also reveals that an “unwanted” child can choose to end a generational pattern of abandonment. Had he lived longer, perhaps he would have come to understand that abortion is always wrong and not just a personal decision.
Certainly, Jobs proved himself capable of raising a relatively normal and close family as a billionaire. There’s a wonderful scene in the biography when Bill Gates comes to pay his respects to his old nemesis.
While Gates lives in a house that rivals the square footage of Versailles, Jobs consciously chose to reside in a comparatively modest residence that functioned without live-in staff or a security detail. The Jobs family gathered every night at the kitchen table for dinner. When Gates checks out Jobs’ home, he asks in wonderment, “Do you all live here?”
In the course of human history, “unwanted” children have jostled for their place alongside those who were part of their doting parents’ long-term plan.
As Catholics, we believe that children should be brought into the world through a loving one-flesh union of husband and wife, both committed to vows of faithfulness, permanence and fruitfulness. And social-science research confirms that children born to single mothers face multiple hurdles that may derail their success and happiness in adulthood.
As responsible adults, we’re duty-bound to make careful preparations for our future progeny. But hubris also can lead us to make ironclad predictions regarding the future of the “unplanned” children in our midst — as if our earthly visions override God’s providence.
Jobs’ biological mother sought to secure his future well-being by insisting that a college-educated couple adopt her son. Instead, two high-school dropouts provided a loving and secure home — and a garage where Jobs watched his father fix things and make them work. Meanwhile, the well-credentialed biological father left his children in the lurch.
A generation later, after an extended struggle with terminal cancer, Jobs fought to stay alive to witness the high-school graduation of his beloved son, Reed.
In the third installment of Toy Story, a Pixar film project that drew Jobs’ intense involvement, the character of Andy heads off to college and bids farewell to his own parents, prompting his mother to say, “I wish I could always be with you.”
“You always will be,” Andy reassures both parents, surely expressing Jobs’ dying wish.
Register senior editor Joan Frawley Desmond writes from Chevy Chase, Maryland. | http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/steve-jobs-an-unwanted-child | 1,844 | Education | 2 | en | 0.999989 |
More than 97,000 children were reported to have tested positive for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) within two weeks in the United States (US).
This was contained in a joint report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
The report which summarized what was available on 30th July noted that 97,078 new child cases reported from 16th of July to 30th of the same month signify a 40% increase in child cases in the country.
For clarification, the report noted that only 8 states of the United States (US) provided an age distribution of testing, which it used.
There were variations in the “child” age ranges “by the states (0-14, 0-17, 0-18, 0-19, 0-20, and 0-24 years” in the report for COVID-19 by states reported for children.
With confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States hitting 5 million Sunday, by far the highest of any country, the failure of the most powerful nation in the world to contain the scourge has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe.
Perhaps nowhere outside the US is America’s bungled virus response viewed with more consternation than in Italy, which was ground zero of Europe’s epidemic. Italians were unprepared when the outbreak exploded in February, and the country still has one of the world’s highest official death tolls at over 35,000.
But after a strict nationwide, 10-week lockdown, vigilant tracing of new clusters and general acceptance of mask mandates and social distancing, Italy has become a model of virus containment.
“Don’t they care about their health?” a mask-clad Patrizia Antonini asked about people in the United States as she walked with friends along the banks of Lake Bracciano, north of Rome. “They need to take our precautions. … They need a real lockdown.”
Much of the incredulity in Europe stems from the fact that America had the benefit of time, European experience and medical know-how to treat the virus that the continent itself didn’t have when the first COVID-19 patients started filling intensive care units.
M ore than four months into a sustained outbreak, the US reached the 5 million mark, according to the running count kept by Johns Hopkins University. Health officials believe the actual number is perhaps 10 times higher, or closer to 50 million, given testing limitations and the fact that as many as 40% of all those who are infected have no symptoms.
“We Italians always saw America as a model,” said Massimo Franco, a columnist with daily Corriere della Sera. “But with this virus we’ve discovered a country that is very fragile, with bad infrastructure and a public health system that is nonexistent.”
With America’s worlds highest death toll of more than 160,000, its politicized resistance to masks and its rising caseload, European nations have barred American tourists and visitors from other countries with growing cases from freely travelling to the bloc.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/08/97000-american-children-test-positive-for-covid-19-in-2-weeks/ | 670 | Health | 2 | en | 0.999943 |
File: In this image released by the US Navy, migrants are gathered on the deck of a Malta Armed Forced ship as they depart the amphibious transport dock ship USS San Antonio on October 17, 2013. The San Antonio rescued 128 men adrift from an inflatable raft that was threatening to capsize in rough seas in the Mediterraneanan on October 16 after responding to a call by the Maltese Government. “AFP PHOTO
ROME (AFP) – A US warship has rescued 128 African migrants from an inflatable raft that was threatening to capsize in rough seas in the Mediterranean after a request from Malta, officials said Thursday.
The USS San Antonio, which is equipped with an amphibious transport dock that can help in rescue operations, was scrambled on Wednesday after a Maltese military aircraft spotted the dinghy.
“We successfully transferred 128 men between the ages of 20 and 30 from an inflatable raft on the San Antonio,” a US Navy official in Italy told AFP.
“The raft was being rocked by winds and seas and we had expected that overnight the seas would increase. If they were to be left out to sea they would probably be in the water right now,” he said.
“We provided food, water, medical attention and temporary shelter.”
The Maltese military said the migrants were mostly Gambian even though they had earlier said they were from Somalia. They were later transferred onto two patrol boats and taken to Malta.
The others were from Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone.
Malta said they were rescued around 75 nautical miles southwest of the Mediterranean island state.
Italy this week launched a stepped-up navy patrol operation in the Mediterranean to scare off people smugglers and put pressure on Europe for further assistance amid a growing influx of refugees.
More than 400 asylum seekers have drowned this month in two tragedies in the Mediterranean.
The Italian coast guard meanwhile released video footage of the arrival in Sicily on Wednesday of a Liberian-flagged cargo ship that rescued 93 African migrants — the latest in over 32,000 who have arrived on Italy and Malta so far this year.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/10/us-navy-rescues128-african-migrants-from-mali-nigeria-senegal-in-rough-seas/#sthash.2BNBKYTV.dpuf | 467 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.99988 |
Birds of a feather don’t breed together
The fascinating phenomenon known as ‘ring species’ is sometimes quite incorrectly used to ‘prove’ evolution. The classic example is as follows.
In Britain, the herring gull is clearly a different species from the lesser black-backed gull. Not only can they be easily told apart, but apparently they never interbreed, even though they may inhabit the same areas. By the usual biological definition, they are therefore technically different species.
However, as you go westward around the top half of the globe to North America and study the herring gull population, an interesting fact emerges. The gulls become more like black-backed gulls, and less like herring gulls, even though they can still interbreed with herring gulls from Britain.
Now go still further via Alaska and then into Siberia (see map). The further west you go, the more each successive population becomes less like a herring gull and more like the black-backed.
At every step along the way, each population is able to interbreed with those you studied just before you moved further west. Therefore, you are never technically dealing with separate species. Until, that is, you continue your journey into Europe and back to Britain, where you find that the lesser black-backed gulls there ‘are actually the other end of a ring that started out as herring gulls. At every stage around the ring, the birds are sufficiently similar to their neighbours to interbreed with them.’1 Yet when the ends of the ring meet, the two do not interbreed and so are for all intents and purposes separate species.
As you travel west via the route shown by the yellow band, each successive population of herring gull seems more like the black-backed gull.
It is clear from such examples that species are not fixed and unchanging, and that two apparently different species may in fact be genetically related. New species (as man defines them) can form. The herring gull and the lesser black-backed gull could not have been initially created as two separate groups reproducing only after their kind, or else they would not be joined by a chain of interbreeding intermediates.
There are also observations of other wild populations from which a reasonable person must infer that certain very similar species did indeed share the same ancestor, even though there is no complete ‘ring’.
Many have been misled into thinking this is evidence for evolution and against biblical creation. However, some thought reveals otherwise. The key to understanding this is to consider the vast amounts of complex information in all living things, coding for functionally useful structures and processes.
Creation as described in the book of Genesis implies that virtually all the genetic information in today’s world was present in the beginning, contained in separate populations (the original created kinds).
This information would not be expected to increase, but could decrease with time—in other words, any genetic changes would be expected to be informationally downhill.
Evolution (in the normal meaning of the word) implies on the other hand that a single cell has become people, pelicans and palm trees. If true, then this is an uphill process—involving a massive increase of information.2
Change—but what sort?
The formation of new species actually fits the creation model very comfortably. The wolf, the dingo and the coyote are all regarded as separate species. However, they (perhaps along with several other species) almost certainly ‘split off’ from an original pair on the Ark—a species representing the surviving information of one created kind. Is there evidence that this can happen, and that it can happen without adding new information, that is, within the limits of the information already present at creation?
A ‘mongrel’ dog population can be ‘split’ into separate sub-groups, the varieties of domestic dog (breeders can isolate portions of the total information into populations which do not contain some other portions of that information). This sort of variation does not add any new information. On the contrary, it is genetically downhill. It involves a reduction of the information in each of the descendant populations compared to the ancestral one. Thus, a population of pampered lap-dogs has less genetic information/variability, from which nature or man can select further changes, than the more ‘wild’ population before evolution selection took place.
But is it conceivable that such change (which is obviously limited by the amount of information already present in the original kind) can extend to full, complete formation of separate species without any new information arising, without any new genes? (In other words, since evolution means lots of new, useful genes arising with time, can you have new species without any real evolution?)
Richard Lewontin is Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard. In his book The Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change he says there are instances in which ‘speciation and divergence of new full species’ have obviously occurred using ‘the available repertoire of genetic variants’,3 without requiring any ‘novelties by new mutation’. In other words, an ancestral species can split into other species within the limits of the information already present in that kind—just as creationists maintain must have happened.4
In the example we looked at, there is no reason to believe that the differences between the two gull species are the result of any new, more complex, functional genetic information not already present in an ancestral, interbreeding gull population. Because there is no evidence of any such information-adding change, it is misleading to say this gives evidence of evolution, of even a little bit of the sort of change required to eventually turn a fish into a philosopher.
Ring species and similar examples actually highlight the great variety and rich information which must have been present in the original created kinds.5 They can be said to demonstrate evolution only to the gullible (pun intended).
References and footnotes
- New Scientist, 5th June 1993, p. 37. Return to text.
- See C. Wieland, ‘Variation, Information and the Created Kind’, Journal of creation 5(1):42–47, April 1991. The usual mechanism proposed is the cumulative selection of ‘uphill’ copying mistakes. However, the observational evidence for such information-adding mutations (as opposed to the occasional loss/defect giving survival value—e.g. eyeless fish in caves) does not appear to exist. On information-theoretical grounds one would expect them to be vanishingly rare if not non-existent. Return to text.
- Columbia University Press, 1974, p. 186. Lewontin refers to ‘new mutations’, as he believes that all existing variation came about by copying accidents (‘old mutations’) in the first place. However, that is belief, not observation. Note that a ‘downhill’ mutation can theoretically cause a reproductive barrier (and speciation) without adding any new, functional information. Return to text.
- For evidence that this can happen very rapidly, see ‘Darwin’s finches—evidence of rapid post-Flood migration’, Creation 14(3):22–23, June–August 1992. Return to text.
- It requires enormous amounts of variation to be already present for selection to result in ‘new’ types. A farmer cannot select for bigger eggs from his hens unless the information for this is already in the genes of some of them. Note that the common ancestor of these two gull species was likely already split off from (and genetically depleted compared to) the original kind. Return to text.
Comments are automatically closed 14 days after publication. | https://creation.com/birds-of-a-feather-don-t-breed-together | 1,615 | Religion | 4 | en | 0.999989 |
By Femi Aribisala
While the world is rich in money, it is poor in mercy.
Jesus says to his disciples: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.” (John 15:16).
For what cause were you born and why was it necessary for you to be born (again) a second time? Were you born spiritually so you can prosper materially, as many teach erroneously? Were you born a second time so you can make a lot of money, build mansions all over the world, and reach the pinnacle of your career? Or were you born again to actualise the spiritual aspects of your nature, even if this involves suffering shame for Christ’s name?
Peter says to the believer: “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, (God’s) own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9).
How does the believer proclaim the praises of God? Is it by what you have or by what you are? God says: “I am what I am.” (Exodus 3:14). He does not say: “I am what I have.”
Jesus says one of the reasons why the believer is still in the world is to determine if he can be trusted with true riches. Thus, Jesus looked at his twelve disciples and decided to make the thief, Judas, the treasurer. Being foolish, Judas used every opportunity to steal time and again from the common purse. Little did he know that in so doing, he failed a simple test. Had he not stolen, he would have qualified to be entitled to true riches.
True riches are those that endure; the type that don’t grow wings and fly away. Jesus asks: “And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Luke 16:12-13).
According to Jesus, money does not belong to the believer. It belongs to someone else. What then belongs to the believer? God himself and the kingdom of God belong to the believer. As God proclaimed concerning the priests and the Levites who were representatives of the modern church in the Old Testament: “It shall be, in regard to their inheritance, that I am their inheritance. You shall give them no possession in Israel, for I am their possession.” (Ezekiel 44:28).
Glory of the world
God blessed Solomon because he did not ask for the world or for the worldly. These are what the Gentiles seek. God blessed him because he sought wisdom to understand kingdom dynamics and to rule according to kingdom principles.
“God said to Solomon: ‘Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches or wealth or honour or the life of your enemies, nor have you asked long life- but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may judge my people over whom I have made you king- wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; and I will give you riches and wealth and honour, such as none of the kings have had who were before you, nor shall any after you have the like.” (2 Chronicles 1:11-12).
Therefore those who understand kingdom dynamics seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and the kingdom of God is spiritual: it is not physical.
What is the glory of man in this world? What are those things about which he makes his boast? What are those things that are the pride of his life? A rich man glories in his possessions. A strong man glories in his strength. A powerful man glories in his influence. A wise man glories in his wisdom. Some glory in their connections, some in their family background, some in their looks, and others in their experience.
But what is the glory of the believer in Christ? What is the glory of the spiritual man? What is the glory of that man who has been born of God? He glories in the fact that he knows God and that God knows him. He glories in the cross, which paved the way for his reconciliation with God. He glories in the name of Jesus.
Glory of God
The glory of man is often tangible, physical and earthy. But the glory of God is denominated in spiritual currency. Man is an instrument for the manifestation of the glory of God. Jesus says God has deposited light, which is another word for glory, in the church. Now he enjoins us to allow the glory to be made manifest. He says: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16).
When Moses asked to see the glory of God, he saw no pride of life. He saw no houses, no lands, and no riches as men call riches. But he saw the riches of the glory of God. He saw mercy, he saw grace, he saw goodness and long-suffering. These are the riches of the glory of God. God is rich in mercy. God has riches of goodness and forbearance and long-suffering.
The design of salvation is for God to display the riches of his glory in the life of believers: “That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.” (Romans 9:23-24).
Believers are not called to showcase the glories of the world. We are called to show forth the glories of the kingdom of God, which are clearly absent in the world. While the world is rich in money, it is poor in mercy. While the United States, for example, is awash with dollars, it is short of goodness. The world is lacking in righteousness, in truth and in compassion. Therefore Isaiah laments that: “Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.” (Isaiah 59:14).
The believer is born again to salt the earth. He salts it with the fruit of the Spirit of God. He supplies the missing quotient of love, joy, and peace. He salts the earth with the riches of goodness. He is kindhearted, honest, faithful and just. The world is starved of these attributes. But they are the ornaments of the kingdom of God.
Look around you. There are people in your neighbourhood who are in great need of mercy. There are people next door that are in need of compassion. People need truth. People need the righteousness of God. Paul says: “My God shall supply what you need, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19). Believers are the riches in glory of God. This makes it our responsibility to supply what the world lacks.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/08/enugu-international-airport-reopens/amp/God | 1,566 | Travel | 2 | en | 0.999996 |
File: Palm oil
There has been notion among Nigerians that Malaysia came to Nigeria some years ago to get seedlings for oil palm which has placed the country as number one oil palm producing country while Nigeria lags behind in ranking.
But this assertion was debunked recently by crop scientists when some select journalists, fellows of the Biosciences for Farming in Africa (B4FA,) were in the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR).
JIMOH BABATUNDE captured the presentations of Dr. (Mrs.) Christy Okwuagwu, the most senior crop scientist at the institute.
Here is an excerpt.
On how Malaysia got its oil palm seeds
Malaysia has overtaken Nigeria in palm oil production. I want you to see the well documented origin of the very original planting materials for oil palm in Malaysia.
The earliest record of palm into Far East Asia was four seedlings planted in a botanical garden in 1848 in java in the Dutch East Indies.
Two of these were from Amsterdam botanical garden, but it is not known how they originated, the other from Bogo or Mauritius in Indian Ocean. The palm that sprang from these four seedlings was all quite similar and they were supposed originally produced from Amsterdam through some African unknown origin.
These four seedlings formed the entire source of the planting materials in Malaysia and that we say the entire population of planting materials in Malaysia have a very narrow genetic base. We don’t normally entirely depend on them for breeding and development. Actually it is necessary they depend on us and subsequent materials to improve their planting materials.
The original materials never came from Africa, never came from Nigeria. They were from Dutch expedition of the early 19th century and because they discovered that the crops had economic advantage in their land they started multiplying these seedlings and raising them as plantation crops. They don’t have natural populations. This is the source of everything in south East Asia.
So, there is no way to assume that Malaysia came to Nigeria and got planting materials and now they have over taken us. They never did. People say this carelessly but they did not. I know you are journalists, this is one of the basic information I want you to debunk in every situation, because we know truly that it is true the Dutch expedition that the Malaysians had these planting materials in the 19th century.
On the birth of NIFOR
Plantation had expanded in South East Asia at that time, but, our people are still depending on the wide groves, so come the turn of the 20th century they found it very necessary to have research stations to develop plantation technology and by 1922 they started going to the wide groves to do genetic selections and by 1939 NIFOR was established, where all the genetic materials will be assembled, evaluated and developed into a plantation crop.
Plantation crop never existed in this country. It was the hope of the colonial masters that plantation crops developed and once the plantation crop develops, the oil palm develops into a plantation crop, and then they can compete with organised south East Asia that already had their own plantation crop development.
This never happened unfortunately, after 1939 we now had research into oil palm with NIFOR as headquarters, we had in Ghana, Freetown, Sierra Leone. These were the three centres where these centres were established. Nigeria remains the oil palm station.
Come 1954 the name was changed to West African oil palm research institute, no longer a research station, but a research institute. A full fledge research institute not just to carry out research on genetic development, but other diverse technology development to support the industry.
We became WIFOR, West African Oil Research Institute, but when the component countries became independent, they took their own research stations to become their national research stations. Ours became Nigerian institute for oil palm research that is what we are today.
This is little background to two information I want to pass across, that one Malaysia never came to Nigeria to collect planting materials and two that NIFOR actually existed because of the threat that Malaysia posed to continuous exploitation of wide groves.
If agric research has made significant impact in Nigeria
Yes and no. Yes because almost all the technology, the fundamental technologies for oil palm development originated from the research here. All the technologies that support oil palm development came from here.
The early research that was carried in WIFOR and NIFOR has been the root of basic information that support plantation development, so it has been very positive towards us Nigerians or Africa.
African countries have been characterized by instabilities of policies. These instabilities of policies and developments have stunted the growth in plantation developments.
Concerted efforts have not been made over the years as it has been in South-East Asia countries like Indonesia and Malaysia in developing those crops. The industries in this country have not grown at the rate the research development has grown.
The oil boom became a doom because palm produce became unimportant, relatively unimportant to our total economic well being. We are totally dependent on petroleum. And so efforts to establish plantations and go forward with this crop did not grow.
Over the years, the federal government made interventions, but they are inconsistent and irregular , so they do not sustain developments. We had the Directorate of Food Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFFIR) in the 80s, in the 90s we had other programs, in the early 21th century, we started with VODEM and now we are coming to ATA.
None of them are linked, a government wakes up and develop his, when the government goes, it dies. Another government comes in with another and the circle continues and so the policies are not carrying the nation along. They are not carrying the nation, it is not coursing development in the industry, and the private people are not mobilized.
The policies do not mobilize the private people who are to develop the industry and the industry is where it is now, we are net importer of vegetable oil. More than 70% of our palm oil still comes from the wide grove. We are still exploiting the wide grove.
Productivity in the wide grove is still very low, small holder productivity very low, very few oil palm estate, very few Nigerians are coming out to put their money where their mouth is. This crop which is native to us, we have not done the goods we should have done with it.
Other countries which have embraced it have seen progress and are really very fortunate. I know that our environment is not the best compared to south east Asia, but we have planting materials which are so good and their yield are very comparable with average yield in south east Asia.
It is to get the industry committed to the development of this crop and I am very glad to see young people coming forward to know what is to be done and you are a mouth piece of the nation, so I am glad you are going to carry this message to our people that they should go into plantation development.
On oil plantation’s impact on environment
Oil plant plantation stabilizes the environment when we are are talking of development, or ozone depletion. The oil palm is one single plant that cleans the environment.
Malaysia prides itself of the best environment in the world because its environment is totally green. Everywhere is green. It has a beautiful shielding effect against the ozone and I want you to have a clarion call with us that people should please come back to our heritage.
Let the groundnut spring up in the north again, the cocoa boom in the west again while in the mid west and the east let the oil palm thrive again. The goodness of it is that the oil palm has grown beyond the mid west and the east. Nassarawa is a good example.
I was in Nassarawa Eggom LGA sometimes ago and they are doing more than the local governments here in Benin in making sure farmers get oil palm seedlings and for that reason they attracted us (NIFOR) to come to them , we established an outreach station for them.
Every year we make sure we satisfy them with the seedlings which the farmers demand very well. In Taraba state, the whole stripe along the Gembu, Mabilla plateau is excellent, it is just like Malaysia.
It has good soil, good rain fall, but people are not planting. We had a plantation in Gembu in the 80s; the yield was as if you were in Calabar.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/09/malaysia-never-took-oil-palm-seed-from-nigeria-dr-okwuagwu/ | 1,761 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999973 |
…Poor compliance, lack of funds limit progress
…48m still defecate in open spaces
By Chioma Obinna
Using the toilet and washing hands with soap has become a great experience for me. I grew up to see my family members defecate in the bush, but our fortunes turned around early this year when my father was able to construct a toilet using Sato Pan”, said 16-year-old Faith Ede, a native of Jago in Oyo State.
The use of toilets and washing hands with soap according to public health experts is key in keeping children, families and communities safe from disease outbreaks and good health. However, in Nigeria, open defecation remains a deeply ingrained practice.
No thanks to the fact that Nigeria ranks No. 1 globally among countries with the highest number of people defecating in the open space.
It is no longer news that going into the bush to defecate is a dangerous challenge as faeces left in the bushes, waterways and homes are major causes of disease outbreaks such as cholera, and diarrhoea. These practices expose children and family members to poor sanitation and hygiene-related illnesses.
However, ending open defecation is doable. Like India which was the leading country with the highest number of people defecating in the open, Nigeria can eradicate open defecation.
But Nigeria’s target to end open defecation by 2025 may remain a mirage as the 2021, WASH National Outcome Routine Mapping on Nigeria’s sanitation status showed that 48 million Nigerians still defecate in the open while 95 million have no access to basic sanitation services.
The WASH report also revealed that about 1.3 per cent of GDP or N455 billion is lost annually due to poor access to sanitation, healthcare savings and productivity.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari 2018 declared a State of Emergency in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector. and in November 2019, Nigeria flagged off the Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet Campaign. The Campaign was backed by Executive Order 9, towards making Nigeria Open Defecation Free by 2025.
Although the Clean Nigeria Campaign is working assiduously to improve the number of Open Defecation Free, ODF, Local Governments Areas, LGAs, in the country, statistics have shown that Nigeria needs to build not less than 3.9 million toilets annually to meet the 2025 target of open defecation.
The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, WASH, Jane Bevan, said the current toilet construction in Nigeria of between 180,000 and 200,000 toilets annually is inadequate.
While stakeholders are of the view that there is a need to do things differently by creating demand for toilets, serious gaps abound in the campaign to make Nigeria Open Defecation Free, ODF.
Today, while open defecation persists in the many communities across Nigeria, public places in the urban areas are not left out. Even in big cities like Lagos, faeces are everywhere. From Lagos to Maiduguri apart from Jigawa which is the first state to attain ODF in Nigeria, the case is the same.
Public places like Markets, and motor garages among others lack WASH facilities. In Mile 2 areas of Lagos, operators of trailers and tankers who are on a daily basis along Mile -Apapa expressway have turned the road into pit toilets. They now use foils popularly known as take-away plates as toilet pans. They go to the toilet in it and throw it anywhere on the road. For instance, the lack of investments in wash facilities remains a major setback in the 2025 target. According to the WASHNORM report, States with the highest open defecation rate are; Ebonyi 73%, Plateau 56%, Kogi 56%, Oyo 54%, Kwara 50%, Kebbi 50%, Engu 48%, Niger 46% Nassarawa 46%, Benue 45%, and Bayelsa 45%.
LGAS that are OD free
According to a UNICEF WASH Specialist, Mr Monday Johnson, barely two years to the country’s 2025 target, as of 31st August 2023, only a total of 105 LGAs out of the 774 LGAs are open defecation free, (ODF) with Jigawa State leading with 27 LGAs.
Others are; Anambra-1, Akwa -Ibom-1, Bauchi-8, Benue-9, Borno-2, Cross-Rivers-6, Kano-11, Kaduna-7, Katsina-25, Osun-1, Yobe-1, Zamfara-3, and Imo-1. Nigeria has a roadmap for ODF and some states have adopted it. sadly, many state governments who have adopted it are yet to mobilise resources and implement the plan just like India did.
Stating that there should be adequate funding to tackle open defecation, he said: “Over the years, we have always seen that the budget for wash is usually lump together for what has three components – water, sanitation and hygiene. Now, when you are making a budget, you are putting those three components together. Most of the budget amount is usually spent on a supply facility and construction because these are things that people easily see and appreciate even if you go to the communities now and ask, what do they need? The first thing that they will tell you is water, But when the water is there, that is not the end, the use of that water has to be complemented by sanitation and hygiene. That keeps the water clean, and safe from the source to the house Nigeria has a roadmap for ODF and some states have adopted it. Johnson said with the rate of LGA ODF, Nigeria will be achieving ODF by 2046.
Stating the funding needs for the Clean Nigeria Campaign and ODF Roadmap of 20,073,000 Household Toilets, Johnson who quoted statistics from UNICEF, FMWR and IMF calculations, said an estimated cost for open defecation in Nigeria is put at N1,555 billion ($3.5 billion) or N193 billion per year while households costs is put at N1,094 billion; government costs is N457 billion or N57 billion per year. Sadly, current government investment is put at N14.4 billion, according to the WASH account for 2019/2020).
Johnson said Nigeria has a deficit of N46 billion for ODF. He regretted that most states are yet to establish WASH, in all the LGAs said Nigeria cannot continue business as usual or it will miss the target of 2025. He expressed worry that Nigeria will not be ODF by 2025 and will maintain its top rank as the country with the most number of OD people practising open defecation.
Cost of Open Defecation
The WASH Specialist further stated that open defecation spreads disease quickly and can lead to death.
He explained that the health impact of open defecation is that it can cause stunting, wasting and malnutrition in children. Studies have shown that more than 100,000 children under 5 years of age die each year due to diarrhoea and other water Sanitation and hygiene-related diseases. It can also lead to loss of dignity, privacy and security as people can be attacked in the process of going to the bush to defecate.
He further explained that open defecation can also lead to low productivity as frequent episodes of WASH-related diseases cause absence from school or work as affected people take time off to heal.
Like Jigawa and India achieve ODF, Nigeria can also reach its goals with a commitment on the part of the government at all levels.
For Johnson, until every Nigerian plays their part, the country may not achieve ODF. On how to achieve the goals, he said there was the need to increase investments and targeted funding by government, and development partners, adding that initiatives like the Community-Led Total Sanitation, CLTS, support households as everyone pays for their latrines. He said the CLTS approach recognises the individual household’s toilets and that the Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet” in addition to CLTS will create demand. Johnson also identified the need to engage the private sector through proven approaches.
What states need to do urgently
To get Nigeria back on track, Johnson explained that States need to create a Sanitation Pool fund with state government funds with a minimum of N50m.
He said there was also the need to mobilise SMEs to construct and operate sanitation facilities in public places, markets, expressways and transport hubs. “States need to engage private companies operating in the states for support for ODF acceleration.
“States should roll out Sanitation Marketing and Financing; identify and engage Celebrities.
And dignitaries who will epitomise the ODF Campaign in all public events, work with the media- Each state radio station should be engaged in sample jingles from CNC, promote intersectoral collaborations- all Education, Health, Nutrition and WASH agencies may have monthly/quarterly steering meeting, and support LGA-wide Sanitation Interventions.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/10/open-defecation-doubts-over-nigerias-attainment-of-2025-target-experts/amp/ | 1,952 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999515 |
RECENTLY, the Vice-Chancellor, University of Abuja, Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na’ Allah, called on the Federal Government to establish a mechanism for assessing Nigerian university professors to determine their contributions to the industry and national development.
Professor Na’Allah compared being a university professor with being conferred with a chieftaincy title whereby the professor may not do anything anymore afterwards.
At a different forum, while delivering a lecture at the second and third combined convocation ceremony of Mountain Top University, Ibafo, Ogun State, Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, was point-blank, raising the same issue Professor Na’Allah addressed at the University of Abuja.
Governor Abiodun challenged Nigerian researchers in tertiary institutions in the country to find lasting solutions to the myriad of challenges, such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, facing humanity.
Abiodun said the country is lagging behind when it comes to introducing disruptive technology.
But are Nigerians, whether in academia or outside the ivory towers, lacking in inventions and inventors? Does government encourage Nigerian inventors? Does government invest in, utilise, commercialise or expand on the inventions made, both by Nigerian professors and the not-too-educated? In the past year alone, a number of young Nigerians, including 17-year-old David Opateyibo, have built drones in which no government in Nigeria showed interest.
Some of those youths have since been snatched up by foreign countries. David Opateyibo is said to have been taken by a Finland-based company. We can also remember Jeremiah Abalaka, a surgeon-turned-immunologist, who insisted he developed a vaccine for HIV. Abalaka’s invention was so badly politicised that the man became frustrated and his invention died.
Why has a government, for instance, not turned the Ariaria Market and its ingenious artisans into an industrial hub? Because the government refused to make the local environment conducive for the commercialisation of the inventions by Nigerians, the inventors have continued to take their talents to Europe, America, and other foreign countries where they are valued. Today, in the USA, hundreds of patents for technological inventions are held by Nigerians.
Mr Cyprian Emeka Uzoh, the United States-based Nigerian from Anambra State, is listed among the world’s prominent inventors in the U.S. Uzoh is in the US’ records of “Prolific Inventors” with 328 patents to his credit! Another US-based Nigerian from Akwa Ibom, Patrick Usoro, has 203 issued patents.
Other Nigerian inventors who were forced by the unfriendly environment in Nigeria to take their inventive talents to the United States include Ndubuisi Ekekwe, who developed microchips used in minimally invasive surgical robots; Sebastine Chinonye Omeh, best known for his research into the use of wind-propelled turbines to generate electricity; Yemi Adesokan, who made the exceptional discovery on drug-resistant infections.
Other Nigerian-US based inventors are Professor Ume Ifeanyi Charles, Aloysius Anaebonam, Brino Gilbert; Emeka Nchekwube, a Nigerian-born neurosurgeon and many others. No doubt, the problem is not with Nigerian professors and inventors. Government should create an enabling environment for them here.
The Nigerian government must show sincerity in its quest for technological development of the country by investing in research and functional education.
It must put in place those same social, political and economic conditions that lure our inventors to other countries, especially steady power supply, employment opportunities and security of lives and property. It is quite unfair to continue to blame university professors and other Nigerians for the failure of government.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/01/why-government-should-encourage-nigerian-inventors-2/ | 821 | Education | 2 | en | 0.9998 |
Abuja – Dr Kema Onu, a reproductive health expert, has warned that the practice of oral sex increases the risk of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).
Onu, who is the Site Coordinator of Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF), an international NGO, gave the warning in an interview in Abuja on Friday.
According to him, oral sex is when someone puts his or her lips, mouth or tongue on a man’s penis, a woman’s genitals, including the clitoris, vulva or the anus of another person.
Onu said most STIs, including chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis could be spread through oral sex.
“Herpes is a common STI, which can result to ulcer in the anus; that is why oral sex is not always accepted.
“An individual could transmit what is in the anus down to the mouth and result to oral herpes,’’ Onu said.
However, he explained that the chances of giving or getting STIs during oral sex could be lowered by using a condom.
Onu pointed out that the human body was filled with billions of micro organisms with different bacteria resident in various parts of the body.
“The bacteria in the mouth is different from the ones in the ear or any part of the body.
“The ones in the mouth is called commensals, they naturally live in the mouth. If in any case the bacteria in the mouth finds its way to another part of the body it becomes pathogenic and affects one,’’ he explained.
Onu said that diagnosis of STIs was very difficult, as they evaded the immune system and would only be noticed after they have caused damage to the system.
“STIs have mechanisms for invading our natural immune system yet some of them do not have vaccines,’’ he said.
Besides, Onu explained that most STIs were treatable while some have no cure, such as herpes, genital warts and HIV.
The coordinator said that many STIs could lead to related conditions such as pelvic inflammatory disease, cervical cancer and complications in pregnancy as well as socio-economic consequences.
He said the treatment of most infected women with such infections would drastically reduce the chances of transmission in the environment.
“The most common of the infection is syphilis; women have a higher chance of contracting STIs from men than from women to the men.
“Every woman experiences a vagina discharge but it is important to know if the discharge is normal or abnormal.
“When a woman begins to experience a foul smell in her discharge, itching, watering in texture that one have to use a pad, such is abnormal.
“However, normal discharge is white while an abnormal is pinkish, yellowish or greenish in colour,’’ he said.
The coordinator, however, said that early diagnosis, curative or suppressive therapy and promotion of safer sexual behaviour were some measures to prevent transmission.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/oral-sex-increases-risk-stis-expert-warns/ | 648 | Romance | 2 | en | 0.99999 |
GFP Hull Classifications:
GlobalFirepower.com (GFP) takes a rather conventional approach to hull classifications regarding per-country naval assets. Below are descriptions of each type considered:
These are either conventional- or nuclear-powered forms showcasing an expansive flight deck with hangar elevators for access. This surface is used for the launching and retrieval of fixed-wing aircraft (as a primary function) and rotorcraft (as a secondary function). In modern navies, Aircraft Carriers represent the flagship of the fleet, making them vital assets. Only a few select nations maintain an aircraft carrier as part of their surface fleet.
The Helicopter Carrier primarily supports rotorcraft and may offer facilities for the operation of Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) fixed-wing aircraft such as the F-35 and AV-8B 'jump jets'. These vessels are typically dimensionally smaller when compared to their Aircraft Carrier brethren. Provision for operating UAVs may also be seen in these vessel types.
Destroyers are the largest named, non-carrier ship type in modern fleets (not including Cruisers which are used by only a few powers). They are powerful, multi-mission oriented hulls with a broad array of sensors, processing systems, and weaponry and can support one or more rotorcraft from their included flight deck. Some forms are mission-specific, focusing on airspace deterrence or submarine hunting as primary roles.
Frigates are the economical answer to the Destroyer, given roughly the same Blue Water / deep water capabilities and broad weapons / mission set. Similarly, they can support rotorcraft and operate independently or as part of the main fighting fleet. Their hull design bridges the gap between the dimensionally larger Destroyer and the smaller Corvette.
Corvettes typically represent the 'smallest' named vessels of the fleet. These are relatively compact hulls capable of operating in Blue Water environments as well as close-to-shore depending on draught depth. Corvettes can prove to be an economical measure for specific powers finding Frigate types out-of-scope and can also serve well those nations showcasing long-running coastlines.
Conventionally- (diesel-electric) and nuclear-powered submersible hull designs are grouped together in the GFP analysis. Additionally, there is no distinction made between dedicated-attack, ballistic missile, and nuclear-attack types. Compact 'midget' submarines are also included as they still form portions of some fleets (as is the case for North Korea and Iran).
The Patrol Vessel category is purposely broad and includes Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) types as well as gunboats, missile boats, fast-attack craft, and - in some cases - riverine assets. These boats are given shallow draughts for their specific operating environments and will typically serve as deterrent and enforcement assets in the grand scheme of the surface fleet.
Mine Warfare and Mine / Countermine assets are a generally overlooked portion of any surface fleet but prove just as critical as other designs particularly in times of war where their capabilities allow for denial of strategic waterways or participation in 'siege tactics' against harbors and ports. The GFP analysis reflects their importance in modern naval warfare. | http://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.asp?country_id=nigeria | 652 | Politics | 3 | en | 0.999977 |
World Water Day: Six side effects of not drinking enough water
Drinking water often helps to maintain a healthy balance. Mild dehydration can decrease one’s energy level and mental functioning and increase stress on the body while severe dehydration can have far more damaging effects.
To avoid dehydration drink at least eight glasses of water every day as an adult.
The importance of water to the mechanics of the human body cannot be overemphasized. It serves as a lubricant to the digestive system and all other body processes.
The water in our saliva helps facilitate swallowing, ensuring that food slides easily down the esophagus. It also lubricates and allows edibles to move more freely.
The body cells and organs depend on water for their functioning. Without water, living things, including humans will die in a few days.
So, when you don’t drink enough water, the underlisted side effects happen.
· Low Energy
When dehydrated, your energy levels drop, and you might feel too tired to continue on with work.
· Higher Risk of Stroke
According to study in BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, not drinking enough water and being dehydrated can raise the risk of strokes and prolong recovery time.
· Slower Metabolism
Your metabolism naturally slows down when you’re thirsty and dehydrated.
Since your brain needs water, when it’s lacking it can lead to headaches and fatigue.
· Poor Skin
Skin needs to stay hydrated from water to look dewy and young. Not drinking enough can increase the effects of aging and make the skin look dry. With insufficient water, collagen can crack, leading to fine lines and wrinkles.
· Weight Gain
Drinking water can even help you lose weight and lower water retention. So not drinking water can make you add a little weight. | https://thenationonlineng.net/six-side-effects-of-not-drinking-enough-water/ | 375 | Health | 3 | en | 0.999968 |
Kingsley Oneyebuchie sits in a Nsukka hospital room on May 5, 2016, after surviving a Fulani herdsmen machete attack in Nsukka, southeast Nigeria. Over the past year Biafran independence protests have erupted across Nigeria’s south-east where many protesters where injured or killed during clashes with the Nigerian Police and army.
The Fulani herdsmen attacked at 6:00 am, just after morning prayers in Nimbo, an idyllic village in southeast Nigeria where farmers grow yams and pawpaws.
At first the villagers thought it was a joke. The nomadic cattle rearers, who have clashed with farmers over grazing rights in central Nigeria for decades, had never come this far south.
But then they saw 20 young men descend from the hills and emerge from the palm tree forest, shooting AK-47 assault rifles in the air and waving machetes.
“We started hearing the sound of gunshots everywhere. They shot so many people,” Kingsley Oneyebuchie, a 31-year-old civil servant, told AFP.
“They shot one of my brothers, they used a knife on my dad, they killed so many,” he said from his hospital bed in the nearby town of Nsukka, bare-chested and wearing only red athletic shorts.
Oneyebuchie ran his fingers tentatively over a 20-centimetre (eight-inch) track of blue surgical stitches at the base of his scalp.
“They used machete on me. After using machete on me, they thought that I died,” he said.
Oneyebuchie was lucky to survive the attack on April 25. At least 10 people are thought to have been killed and scores of others injured.
– Ethnic lines –
In the past year, raids by Fulani herdsmen have increased in the southeast.
The worst happened some 200 kilometres (125 miles) away in Agatu, Benue state, in late February, where hundreds of people — most of them Christian farmers — were reportedly killed.
The bloodshed mirrors that after Nigeria gained independence in 1960, when Igbos dominant in the mainly Christian southeast, were pitted against Hausa and Fulani in the largely Muslim north.
The ethnic violence led to two military coups, hundreds of deaths — and ultimately a civil war, when the southeast broke away and declared an independent Republic of Biafra in 1967.
Some one million Igbos died either fighting for the fledgling nation or from starvation and disease in a brutal conflict that by its end in 1970 left the southeast broken.
Now, stricken villagers maintain the only solution to the Fulani attacks — and perceived northern domination of political posts from the president downwards — is an independent state.
“We need to know that this is Igbo and this is Fulani,” said Oneyebuchie. “We want them to leave our place so that we will be free.”
– Growing conflict –
According to the Global Terrorism Index 2015 report, “Fulani militants” killed 1,229 people in 2014 — up from 63 in 2013 — making them the “fourth most deadly terrorist group” in the world.
Most deaths happened in Nigeria’s religiously mixed so-called Middle Belt states.
But the apparent migration south into Igbo territory is being used by an increasingly hardline pro-Biafra movement as an indication the Nigerian government doesn’t serve or protect the region and is stoking discontent in the southeast.
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Hausa-Fulani who opposes the pro-Biafran movement, took until late April to speak out about the herdsmen, saying he had ordered military and police to “take all necessary action to stop the carnage”.
He has proposed setting up a grazing plan that includes the establishment of cattle ranches and importing grass feed from Brazil.
Critics argue his response is too little, too late and overly ambitious.
“I have yet to hear this government articulate a firm policy of non-tolerance for the serial massacres,” Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka said recently, describing the ranch plan as “optimistic”.
– ‘A second genocide’ –
The arrest and detention of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader Nnamdi Kanu last year catapulted him and his more hardline pressure group into the mainstream.
“Buhari has authorised a second genocide on Biafra,” IPOB, which has been campaigning for Kanu’s release through public protests, said about the herdsmen.
“Biafrans are on the verge of being exterminated,” it added.
In Nimbo, the farmers use less emotive language but their underlying message is the same.
Today the village is deserted, with shiny new padlocks fastened on the wood doors of mud-brick houses and hectares of cassava and melon crops abandoned until safer times.
“We have been complaining to government, complaining to everyone, no help,” said Thaddeus Okenwa, a 65-year-old cassava farmer with a raspy voice and muscular hands.
“We are now just managing because nothing goes normal. If they can give us our own independence, let’s go.
“We don’t pray for war now, but this (the Fulani issue) can cause it because you can’t be a stranger in your home.”
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/05/how-2/ | 1,204 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999971 |
A deserted road following the sit at home order in South East, Nigeria
Shops, schools and businesses were shut in southeast Nigeria on Tuesday, 50 years to the day since an independent republic of Biafra was declared, sparking a brutal civil war.
In Onitsha, the economic hub of Anambra state on the banks of the River Niger, most markets were closed and the streets were largely empty of people and traffic.
Separatist sentiment persists in the region, which is dominated by the Igbo people, and the main pro-Biafran independence group has called on supporters to stay at home.
“No work today, we are Biafran, we are not Nigerians,” said Ebere Ichukwu Eli, one of the few people to venture outside, where there was a visible security presence.
“No violence, it is a peaceful sit at home. We are protesting peacefully,” the 47-year-old told AFP.
A woman who gave her name only as Justine, said: “The market is closed today. I’m just going home to stay with my children.
“We want our one Biafra. It’s our land. That’s why we all sit at home today.”
– Over 100 arrested –
The closures were either to commemorate the anniversary in support or because of fears of violence, local people said.
Nigerian police last week denounced “planned protests and order of market closures” and warned it would “deal decisively” with any breach of the peace or unlawful protest.
Last year, demonstrations marking the declaration of Biafran independence turned bloody. Amnesty International said the military gunned down more than 60 people.
Since August 2015, more than 150 people have been killed in pro-Biafra protests, said Amnesty’s Nigeria director Osai Ojigho. Nigeria’s government denies the claim.
“We urge the Nigerian security agencies to conduct themselves in a manner that will ensure public order without resorting to force,” he added.
Amnesty said the security forces had arrested more than 100 members of pro-Biafran separatist groups in the run-up to Tuesday’s anniversary.
Calls for independence never disappeared even after the 30-month civil war, which left more than one million dead, most of them Igbos, mainly from starvation and disease.
Many people accuse the government of failing to invest in the southeast since the end of the war in 1970, blighting development. Some see it as a punishment for the conflict.
Support for secession has increased since the arrest in late 2015 of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the pro-independence Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/02/rigging-pdp-targeting-inec-security-officials-observers-for-inducement-says-apc/Shut | 607 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999931 |
By Chekwube Nzomiwu
THE United States of America often prides itself as the bastion of democracy in the world. A few days ago, President Joe Biden stressed the importance of the right to vote in his remarks at the 58th Anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” at Edmund Pettus Bridge Selma, Alabama. In his words: “The right to vote- the right to vote and to have your vote counted- is the threshold of democracy and liberty. With it, anything is possible…without that right, nothing is possible. And this fundamental right remains under assault.”
Biden, a democrat, was at Alabama to mark the anniversary of the March 7, 1965 Selma March by hundreds of demonstrators, demanding for voting rights for Black Americans who faced barriers to vote across much of the south of the United States. Although law enforcement officers brutally clamped down on the protesters, five months later, the Congress passed the “Voting Rights of 1965”, prohibiting racial discrimination in voting in the United States.
This year’s commemoration of the Selma demonstration coincided with widespread contestations over the outcome of the February 25 presidential election in Nigeria, which the Financial Times, one of the leading business news organisations in the world, described as badly flawed. Relying on testimonies of both local and international observers and its own observation of the election, the British news organisation, in an editorial, chronicled numerous irregularities that marred the election, including snatching of ballot materials, violence, voter suppression and intimidation, delay in arrival of electoral officials at the polling units and late commencement of accreditation and voting.
In the opinion of the Financial Times, these irregularities contributed in depriving millions of Nigerians the right to vote. According to the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the body saddled with the responsibility of conducting elections in Nigeria, the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections witnessed a drop in voter turnout to 27 per cent from 35 per cent recorded in 2019.
To add salt to injury, the result could not be uploaded real time from polling units to INEC’s result viewing portal, IReV, as prescribed by the commission in its guidelines for the election. Section 148 of the Electoral Act, gives the electoral body the power to make guidelines and regulations to ensure the full effect of the law. Section 60 (5) of the Act states that the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot in a manner as prescribed by the commission.
The prescribed manner in this case, is the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, introduced by INEC to boost the credibility of Nigerian elections. But, rather than use the BVAS to upload the results real time from the polling units as prescribed in the election guidelines, INEC resorted to manual collation for the presidential election. Amid protest by other political parties over these obvious irregularities in the election, the electoral body hurriedly declared the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, as the winner of the election. According to the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who doubled as the returning officer for the election, Tinubu polled 8.8 million votes to defeat other top contenders, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of Labour Party, LP, who polled 6.9 million and 6.1 million respectively. Both Atiku and Obi have since approached the Court of Appeal, the court of first instance on presidential election matters, to challenge the outcome of the election.
While Tinubu was basking on the euphoria of torrents of congratulatory messages he received from world leaders, the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard declared that the electoral process as a whole on February 25 failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians. Atiku Abubakar and his party, PDP, staged a protest to the headquarters of INEC in Abuja, to express their dissatisfaction with the election. Regardless, the ruling APC maintained that its candidate won the election and asked those not satisfied with the outcome of the election to go to court.
For now, all eyes are on the judiciary, as it appears there was very little that INEC could do now, having issued Tinubu with a Certificate of Return as the winner of the controversial election. Besides the irregularities that marred the election, one issue Nigerians expect the court to resolve is the argument that the winner did not meet the legal threshold in Section 134 (2) of the Constitution, for one to be declared winner of a presidential election.
As we wait for the election tribunal to decide the case one way or the order, I fear that Nigeria may have missed another golden opportunity to rediscover herself as the Giant of Africa. Recall that in 2013, Barack Obama, the first American President of African descent, described Nigeria as critical to the rest of the African continent. Obama argued that “if Nigeria does not get it right, Africa will really not make more progress”. Regrettably, Africa is today a theatre of the absurd and bizarre, including armed conflicts, insurgency, coup d’états and other forms of political instability. The continent is also plagued by economic crisis and environmental degradation.
Ironically, Nigeria, which the world expects to champion the advancement of the continent, is not spared. Instead of rule of law, lawlessness rules, even within the corridors of power. The entire political system is dogged by corruption, ethnic and religious tensions. The political gladiators are more concerned with self survival and their Machiavellian actions are driven by individual, rather than national interest.
Most worrisome is that the country lacks the capacity to conduct credible elections, hence depriving the citizens of leadership at all strata and arms of government. Indeed, can anyone quantify the consequences of these maladies on the country? In spite of the humongous oil revenue that accrued to Nigeria over the years and the numerous efforts by successive governments to address the infrastructure deficit in the country, wide gaps still exist in the country’s power, transportation, communication, aviation, health and education infrastructure.
The economy is in doldrums. Citizens spend donkey time on very long queues to fuel their cars and electricity generators, in order to improvise for the acute shortage of electricity from the national grid in their homes and offices. Presently, Nigeria faces a severe cash crunch, occasioned by a shoddy and “inexpertly” implemented cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, which resulted in long queues of hapless citizens standing for hours at Automated Teller Machine, ATM, points and inside banking halls, searching for cash to meet their basic daily needs. Unemployment rate is almost 40 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS. Although Nigeria moved up four places in the latest 2022 Corruption Perception Index, CPI, it maintained its previous score of 24 out of 100 points in the 2021 assessment, showing that nothing has changed.
The story is not different in the educational and health systems of the country. While, there is global consensus that education is the bedrock of development, about 20 million children are out of school in Nigeria, as of the last quarter of 2022, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO.
The annual budgetary allocation at the federal level for education is a far cry from the 26 per cent benchmark recommended by UNESCO for member countries. The sub-nationals are faring worse. Primary and secondary schools in Nigeria experience lack of instructional materials. They lack qualified and trained personnel. At the tertiary level, prolonged strikes by academic and non-academic staff often paralyze academic activities in our citadels of learning, impacting negatively on standards.
In the health system, brain drain deprives our health institutions of their best hands, as they leave the country on a daily basis in search of greener pastures in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The primary health system is almost nonexistent while the tertiary health institutions do not measure up to consulting clinics in even sister African countries. However, the frustration vented in this piece does not mean that all hope is lost. From the experiences of the big democracies and the upcoming ones, we can establish a correlation between democracy and development.
A credible election is the hallmark of democracy. Therefore, we must do everything to get our elections right. To get it right, we must interrogate the character of those who would be entrusted with our electoral process in future, sustain reforms in our electoral laws and allow technology to fully drive the system, to protect our elections from the machinations of desperado politicians and willing conspirators in the electoral body.
*Nzomiwu, a public affairs commentator, wrote from Awka, Anambra State
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By Douglas Anele
To ensure continuous economic exploitation of the country,British colonial officials had always wanted the insular, undereducated and pliant Fulani to dominate post-independent Nigeria in line with Frantz Fanon’s perceptive observation that colonialists prefer as their successors stooges of the colonial power, that is, dependants who they could easily manipulate.
That was why Sir James Robertson appeased Ahmadu Bello ostensibly to prevent him from taking the north out of Nigeria by unfairly anointing Balewa whose party, the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC), came third in the 1959 federal elections as Prime Minister and asked him to form a government even before the election results were fully released. Sentiments aside, Fulani caliphate colonialists currently gloating about the alleged indissolubility of Nigeria, pontificating as if the country belongs to them,are mere beneficiaries of the high octane odious pro-north manipulations of British colonial officials and the naivety of southern politicians who ignored warning signs especially from the Sardauna and Balewa that the Fulani intend to politically dominate the country for good.
Thus it can be plausibly argued that Britain never really wanted a united progressive Nigeria after independence, else the country should have been partitioned in 1960 like India or Sir Robertson would not have anointed Balewa as Prime Minister given that Dr.Azikiwe and Chief Awolowo whose political parties came first and second respectively in the1959 polls had better credentials for leading a modern nation than the Sardauna’s protégé. Needless to say, the choice of Balewa set the stage for the domination of leadership at the centre by incompetent northerners aided and abetted by insanely selfish southern political carpetbaggers.
Now, unknown to most One Nigeria advocates from the south, in any country where about 50% (or even less but significant enough to be a strong social force) of the population are muslims, the latter would always want to seize political power and establish sharia. Balewa’s 1947 statement cited earlier about the north continuing its “uninterrupted conquest to the sea” is a subtle hint that even before independence the dominant faction of the northern feudal establishment was serious about completing the 19the century jihad of Uthman Dan Fodio and create an Islamic theocracy throughout Nigeria.
Any doubt about this was completely erased by the arrogant proclamation of Ahmadu Bello that “The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great-grandfather, Uthman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities of the north as willing tools and the south as a conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us, and never allow them to have control over their future.”
Highly respected southern politicians of the First Republic from the south and middle-belt must have been extraordinarily naïve poor students of the history of Islamic expansionism since they didnot heed the warning signs about the real jihadist intentions of Fulani caliphate colonialists that underpin the statements by Balewa and Sardauna which would have required them to insist irrevocably on confederation at the minimum, with the option of secession if the need arises. Dr.Azikiwe is particularly guilty in this regard. He was so obsessed with a united Nigerian nation that he failed to see that Sardauna’s triumphalist northernisation policies negate the very idea of One Nigeria.
And notwithstanding the trailer-loads of excuses diehard Yoruba admirers of Chief Awolowo parade to justify his ill-advised support for Gowon and ignoble role during the civil war, there is no doubt that by so doing “the late sage” unwittingly played into the hands of the very caliphate foot-soldiers (including Obasanjo) that frustrated his ambition to lead Nigeria.Unfortunately, it appears that prominent southerners are pachydermatous to the lessons of history.
As if to corroborate George Santayana’s claim that those who neglect the past are condemned to repeat it, in 1978 Chief Rotimi Williams and Prof. Ben Nwabueze repeated Azikiwe’s mistake of placing “national unity” above all else by helping to draft a constitution (doctored by the military afterwards) which placed too much powers at the federal level. That unitarist constitution mutated into the gravely flawed 1999 constitution which has put the country on a cliff-hanger today.
It is difficult to understand why an overwhelming majority of non-muslims and non-Fulani across the country have not realised the existential threat posed by the Islamisation agenda of the Fulani ruling cabal to peace and unity in the country and work together to thwart it. All over the world muslims see it as obligatory religious duty commanded by Allah and his prophet to conquer, dominate and establish Islamic rule worldwide. Moreover the sordid history of the spread of Islam indicates clearly that the process starts with increasing concessions and appeasement of muslims over time until an omega point is reached when they would stake their claim to political leadership often by force.
That said, in the Animal Farm called Nigeria, Buhari’s”second coming” is seen by Fulani caliphate colonialists as a golden opportunity to actualise the vision of Ahmadu Bello. Accordingly, what has been happening nationwide especially since 2015, epitomised by Buhari’s ringing divisive nepotism and sprouting of assorted terrorist Islamist groups from the core north and beyond,is nothing other than the unfolding of Fulani colonisation grand plan. It also explains why the dominant wing of the northern ruling elite will never support abrogation of the fraudulent unitarist 1999 constitution which unduly favours the north, recognises sharia and places Islam ahead of other religions, and why the bizarre visa free policy of the federal government was introduced to facilitate the influx of Fulani from other countries into Nigeria.
The Fulanisation process is enthusiastically supported by Nasir el-Rufai,Bala Mohammed and several other northern politicians. Of course, the underlying motive is for the Fulani from everywhere to take over ancestral lands in the south so that with time their population will reach a critical point for the emergence of emirates across southern Nigeria – a monumental tragedy, in my opinion. Buhari’s administration is taking his preferential treatment of the north and disdain for Igboland to unprecedented absurd level.
For instance, whereas it used a northern judge to quickly proscribe and declare the largely pacifist IPOB a terrorist group the government continuously protects murderous Fulani bandits and terrorists to the extent of paying them hundreds of millions of naira thereby sustaining their heinous activities. One might as well admit that Buhari’s definition of democracy is government of the Fulani, by the Fulani, and for the Fulani supported by avaricious southerners selling their people for crumbs that fell from their Fulani masters’ table. It follows that those working against Nnamdi Kanu and others demanding referendum so that different ethnic nationalities or groups of them can decide their political future are making a terrible mistake.
It also means that Farooq Kperogi’s sarcastic statement regarding Nigerians “interminably whining” about their dysfunctional country is an act of bad faith. Nigeria as presently constituted and run cannot stand the test of time because embedded in her DNA is the potential for instability, arrested development and conflict if urgent measures are not taken to justly address genuine agitations by sections of the countryasphyxiated in the Lugardian contraption of 1914.
From another perspective, southern Nigeria is largely responsible for its predicament given that the Fulani domination agenda even with Britain’s support would not have succeeded if Azikiwe, Awolowo and other frontline political leaders had put their ego and petty squabbles in abeyance and presented a united front against it.Sadly, the ugly situation has worsened since the purported return to democracy in 1999.
Those blaming northerners solely for the depressing status of Ndigbo especially should look inwards at so-called Igbo leaders first before pointing accusing fingers at Gowon, Buhari, Babangida and the rest. Anyway, to make Nigeria as presently constituted work for everybody is virtually impossible: her mixed-up shambolic geopolitical and economic system tends to produce, reproduce and recycle scoundrels in leadership positions. Anyone that thinks otherwise is living in cloud cuckoo land. Therefore the best option moving forward is either confederation or peaceful dismemberment.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/03/the-possible-impossibility-of-nigeria-4/ | 1,803 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999981 |
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the proportion of children under five years of age “chronically infected with hepatitis B (HBV)” dropped to just under one per cent in 2019.
WHO in a statement on Monday, said this was down from around five per cent in the pre-vaccine era, between the 1980s and the early 2000s.
It noted that the reduction marked the achievement of one of the milestone targets to eliminate viral hepatitis in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The statement comes a day ahead of this year’s World Hepatitis Day commemorated annually on July 28 to enhance global awareness of viral hepatitis.
The disease is characterised by an inflammation of the liver that causes a range of health problems, including liver cancer.
This year’s theme is “Hepatitis-free future,” with a strong focus on preventing hepatitis B among mothers and newborns.
To build on the achievement, the global health body is calling for “united and stepped-up action” through intensified efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission.
It is advocating enhanced testing of pregnant women, provision of antiviral prophylaxis to those who need it, and maintenance and expansion of access to hepatitis B immunisation and birth dose vaccine.
“No infant should grow up only to die of hepatitis B because they were not vaccinated,” the statement quoted the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus as saying.
“Today’s milestone means that we have dramatically reduced the number of cases of liver damage and liver cancer in future generations.
“Preventing mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B is the most important strategy for controlling the disease and saving lives.
“Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we must ensure that mothers and newborns have access to life-saving services including hepatitis B vaccinations,” Ghebreyesus said.
Globally, more than 250 million people are living with chronic HBV infection, according to the organisation.
It says infants are especially vulnerable, with 90 per cent of children infected with HBV in their first year of life becoming chronic HBV carriers.
“HBV attacks the liver and claims the lives of nearly 900,000 people each year,’’ WHO added.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/12/faan-begins-palliative-repair-enugu-runway/Chronic | 513 | Politics | 3 | en | 0.999907 |
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says more than 300,000 women die annually during pregnancy and childbirth.
Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA Executive Director, disclosed this at the occasion of International Day of the Midwife, which honoured midwives as family ‘partners for life’.
He urged governments and development partners to expand midwifery programmes and promote an environment where midwives can effectively serve the needs of women and their families.
“Midwives save lives, support and promote healthy families, and empower women and couples to choose whether, when and how often to have children.
“They also help avert sexually transmitted infections and prevent disabilities like obstetric fistula, mother-to-child transmission of HIV and female genital mutilation.
“Each year, more than 300,000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth.
“The UN also estimates that some three million babies do not survive the first month of life, and another 2.5 million are stillborn.
“Most of them could have been saved by the care of well-trained midwives within the framework of strong health systems,” Osotimehin said.
This year’s theme for the Day is ‘Midwives, Mothers and Families: Partners for Life!’
Osotimehin said the Day underscored the important roles that “these women and girls have in preventing maternal and newborn deaths and empowering women to make informed, healthy choices”.
“These are critical aspects of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which seek to alleviate poverty and assist the planet, by the 2030 deadline,” the UNFPA chief said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has also reiterated the importance of midwives washing their hands and maintaining hygienic standards.
Fran McConville, Midwifery Adviser of WHO, on the occasion of the Midwifery Day, tasked midwives on hygiene, particularly handwashing.
McConville said that “handwashing and lack of water and sanitation is a fundamental constraint to quality of care.
“As midwives we must work in partnership to improve access to water, sanitation and electricity for all women and babies everywhere.
“Worldwide, 30,000 women and 400,000 babies die every year from infections, such as puerperal sepsis, often caused by lack of water, sanitation and poor hand-washing practices,” the WHO official said.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/05/unfpa-says-300000-women-die-annually-pregnancy-childbirth/ | 540 | Health | 3 | en | 0.999987 |
Flood and mudslide bury over 300 in Sierra-Leone
The Federal Government has commenced the construction of dykes to protect the nation’s river bodies and minimise risks that could arise from flooding.
Dr Elijah Aderibigbe, Director, Irrigation and Drainage, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, made this known in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said that this became necessary to curtail water levels so as to prevent them from overshooting their boundaries.
River dykes are artificial slopes or walls erected to regulate water levels to reduce the risk of flooding by getting water away from an area facing the risk of flooding as quickly as possible.
The overall goal is to prevent a build-up of water that could wreak havoc on the environment.
Aderibigbe said that the construction of dykes would protect farmlands, farm produce and livelihoods, while enhancing the people’s well-being.
He said that for instance, the ministry had constructed a 32-kilometre dyke at Tada-Shonga Irrigation land in Edu Local Government Area, Kwara, with funds from national budgets and support from the Natural Resources Fund.
He noted that the Federal Government was interested in the protection of farmlands and would do everything possible to get all anti-flood projects completed.
“The Federal Government is making funds available to see that contractors return to site to ensure the full completion of the projects.
“Because if we don’t complete the works, floods can enter into farmlands and everything there could be destroyed; so, dykes are being constructed in those flood-prone areas,’’ he said.
Aderibigbe said that Zauro Polder Irrigation Project in Kebbi was also being executed.
Besides, the director said that the desilting and draining of canals were also being considered, stressing that when this was done, fears of flooding would be eliminated.
He said that the ministry was activating all its departments, particularly in its efforts to impound water for water supply and irrigation purposes.
Aderibigbe stressed that some states were drained whenever there was excess water, while irrigation projects were undertaken when there was low water for crop growing.
He, however, urged all Nigerians to take ownership of all water utilities in their neighbourhoods, saying that the participatory irrigation approach would help to guarantee the sustainability of the irrigation projects.
He said that the water users associations had a vital role to play in the arrangement as well.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/07/fg-begins-construction-of-dykes-to-prevent-flooding-official/ | 550 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999987 |
BY OBICHERE IWUAGWU
From time immemorial, the worship at the shrine of Chileke Oriukwu has been the singular identity of the common ancestry of the teeming people of Ezinihitte Mbaise who originally camped and resided around Oriukwu. It was their belief that Orieukwu Oboama-na-Umunama was the seat of the creation of the world and the spirit.
Before Christianity gained considerable foothold in Ezinihitte, the communities, once a year, gathered at the shrine of Chileke Orieukwu to offer worship to the Creator (Chileke) for their fortunes and harvest of the year and as well render supplications for the future.
The ceremony was preceded, eight days ealier, by a secret and mysterious race in the night called, Oso Nwannunu which was led by the Priest of the shrine of Amachi of Akpokwu Egbelu in Akpodim to the shrine of Chileke Orieukwu. Nobody ate or drank anything until the special function of itu aka had been performed by the priest of Amachi of Akpodim.
During the itu aka, the priest of the shrine of Amachi recounted the events of the year, poured libations and recited incantations. He concluded the itu aka function by touching his throat and lips thus announcing the commencement of feasting, and people regaled themselves on the sacrificial meals and other food brought for the occasion. By this cultural interaction, it was believed that the forefathers maintained their ancient affinities with the living.
How the kola nut festival was approved
But in the thick of the Christian religious worship, the traditional worship of Chileke Orieukwu has survived only in its lowest ebb. The declining attendance of the votaries of Chileke Orieukwu to the yearly rituals, in the wake of Christain religious proselytism, rendered the annual worship an ineffective socio cultural assembly for all Ezinihitte Communities.
For this reason, in August 1953, a home and abroad meeting of Onyeaghala Nwanneya was convened at No.84 Hospital Road, Aba and the deliberation centered on evolving another cultural event that could draw all Ezinihitte Communities together irrespective of religious affiliations.Thus, the kola nut (oji) festival received approval.
However, the ceremony would no longer be held at Orieukwu. But since the communities still guard very jealously their age-old cultural links, Ezinihitte people evolved another ritual with the kola nut which is still celebrated today as Oji Festival. Through this act of commensality, the people thus, bring into relief the principle of “Kola nut Communion” through which the kola nut is shown as the greatest symbol of affinity (Ife ’92).
Therefore,on 1st January annually, all the Ezinihitte towns/autonomous communities assemble to trace their roots and relieve the spirit of brotherhood as people with a common background. The towns/autonomous communities come together on equal status despite size or population (Udo ‘90).
Although the communities attend the celebration on equal footing, certain autonomous communities had protested against their position in the circle of Oji Festival. Their present position, they claim, is not in keeping with their place at the age-long traditional worship of Chileke Orieukwu. This was the Case notably with Akpodim and Udo which withdrew from the Oji celebration until issues appeared tentatively resolved through the grouping the communities by consanguinity.
This arrangement affirms the tradition:that kola nut from a host’s house, must first rotate among immediate blood relations before it travels to more distant neighbours. The cultural fiesta sets off with glamour in the afternoon on 31st December with the formal hand-over of Okwa Oji to the host Eze in Council and the officials of the community Development Union at the boundary by the host community of the previous year.
Amidst the booming of cannon shots, singing and dancing, the Eze receives the Okwa Oji and goes home with his council comprising; Ndi Eze, Ndi Nze and Chiefs, the officials of the Ezinihitte Development Union (EDA), Ezinihitte Heritage Club, Ezinihitte Social Club, Special guests and others present.
The procession moves slowly with reverence and decorum on foot or in cars, depending on the distance, until the Okwa Oji arrives at the Eze’s Palace. Grand feasting of the above sets of at the Eze’s palace. At the palace, Ndi Eze and the official of the EDA sit together to review the programmes and preparations of the next day.
The events of 1st January commence about eleven in the morning when crowds of people from the communities and from far and wide flow into the arena. The Ezinihitte communities take their seats in the various booths arranged in order from Oboama-na-Umunama to Onicha. The central booth is occupied by Ndi Eze who as custodians of culture and customs oversee the organization of the festival with the aid of the EDA.
A booth is made available to accommodate VIPs and other dignitaries from Ezinihitte, other parts of Mbaise and beyond. Ndi Eze and Chiefs find it more expedient to occupy the booth with their communities. Meanwhile, the concourse is enthralled with various displays of traditional dances. Finally, when all is ready, Ndi Eze, finely dressed in their regalia, come into the arena in a cortege.
The ceremony begins with introduction of the Chairman of the occasion by the Master of ceremony and the rendering of prayers. Addresses are presented by the host community and the Ezinihitte Conference of Traditional Rulers.
From one corner of the arena, the Cabinet members of the host community, all resplendent in their native attires, have gradually been moving the Okwa Oji with singing and rejoicing, place it in front of the Traditional Rulers.
The presentation of the Okwa Oji and the Oji (kola nuts) by Ndi Nze and Chiefs of the host community to Ndi Eze marks the actual commencement of the Oji ritual. The Okwa bears the Oji and Ufra (Nzu) which are the main items for the day’s ritual. The climax of the performance is ichi Oji.
This slightly edited version culled from Mbaise News is originally published in the book, Mbaise-A Development Survey
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File photo: Surgeons at work
By Sola Ogundipe
A lump on the testicleTesticular cancer is the most common cancer in men aged 20 to 35. Nearly 2,000 men are diagnosed with testicular cancer each year in the UK, and regular self-examination is recommended.
If you notice a lump or abnormality in your testicles, first thing to do is see your doctor. Most testicular lumps are not cancer, but it is essential to have any abnormalities checked. This is because treatment for testicular cancer is much more effective if the cancer is diagnosed early.
Check all moles regularly and be aware of any change in colour or shape, or if they start bleeding. Most changes are harmless and are due to a non-cancerous increase of pigment cells in the skin. See your doctor if a mole looks unusual or becomes itchy. It can then be checked and removed if necessary. Could you have a cancerous mole and not know it? Find out now.
If you’re depressed, you may lose interest in things you used to enjoy. If you’ve been having feelings of extreme sadness, see your doctor at once. Depression is a real illness with real effects on your work, social and family life. Treatment usually involves a combination of self help, talking therapies and drugs. Depression is more common in women, but men are far more likely to commit suicide. This may be because men are more reluctant to seek help. Things such as financial and job insecurity, redundancy and debt can all affect mental wellbeing.
Every man has a prostate gland and it’s crucial to his sex life..When the prostate is enlarged, it can press on the tube that carries urine from the bladder. This can make it hard to pass urine, which can be a sign of prostate disease, including cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in Nigeria. More men are being diagnosed with it every year. Other symptoms include pain or burning when you pass urine and frequently waking up in the night to pee. If you have any of these symptoms, see your doctor as soon as possible.
Most men have problems getting or keeping an erection (impotence) at some point. If your erection problems last for several weeks, you need to see a doctor. Generally, lifestyle changes, such as losing weight and exercise, can correct the problem. Some men may need medication, others may not. It may be necessary to assess your general health because impotence, also known as Erectile Dysfunction, can be a sign of more serious conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes or high blood pressure. Half of all men over 40 have had trouble getting an erection at least once.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/07/edo-confirms-eight-cases-of-monkeypox/Symptoms | 575 | Food | 2 | en | 0.99999 |
By Dada Olusegun
The Lagos-Calabar coastal road project is undoubtedly Nigeria’s most ambitious transport infrastructure project since independence. In terms of scope, distance covered, and connectivity, not even the 3rd Mainland Bridge in Lagos, the 2nd Niger Bridge in Onitsha/Asaba, or the Abuja-Kano expressway comes close. It is simply a world-class iconic project.
Before I go further, I want us to take a brief trip back to history. The idea for a major coastal federal road in Nigeria was first conceptualized in 1955 by the then Federal Commissioner of Finance, Late Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, who hails from present-day Delta State. Okotie-Eboh proposed the development of a network of rail and road routes from Lokoja-Benin City-Koko-Warri-Onitsha to aid the movement of goods.
Specifically, he proposed the Koko-Ogheye-Epe dual carriageway project that was to traverse Delta and Ondo states and terminate at Epe in Lagos. This road is basically meant to hug the coastal areas of Delta and Ondo states and shorten travel distance between Lagos and the Niger Delta and the rest of the Eastern region. The project did not take off in the first Republic.
During the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo as civilian president, he elected to commence construction of a variant of the coastal road from Warri in Delta State to Calabar. This was what came to be known as the East-West road.
In 2010, however, the government of President Goodluck Jonathan through NDDC also awarded the Koko-Ogheye-Epe road to Levant Construction Ltd. The Lagos State government on its part during the administration of then-Governor Bola Tinubu was also independently planning to build a coastal road that will span the entire Lekki-Epe axis, which it foresaw as the next major economic frontier in Lagos and the country. Thirteen years later, the chief visionary of that Lagos coastal road is now Nigeria’s President.
President Tinubu then decided to marry his Lagos coastal road vision with that of Okotie-Eboh’s Koko-Ogheye-Epe coastal road vision in addition to the thinking behind the East-West road to come up with a variant of the Lagos-Calabar coastal road that we have now.
What is the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road Project?
This is simply a 700km mega-highway that starts from Victoria Island in Lagos and ends in Calabar, Cross River State. It will pass through Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom states before terminating at Calabar. This coastal highway is the first of its kind in the world. First and foremost, it comprises a 10-lane boulevard with five lanes on each side of the dual carriageway and a standard gauge train track in the middle. Concrete pavement technology is to be adopted in the construction of the entire stretch of the road.
The Lagos-Calabar coastal road has two major spurs. First is the 1000km Badagry-Sokoto road, which will connect the South West to the North Central and the North West through the shortest route possible, terminating at Sokoto. The second spur is the Enugu-Abakaliki-Ogoja road going to Cameroon, which essentially connects the South East to the coastal road.
This spur continues from Enugu to Oturkpo to Nasarawa to Apo in Abuja. Essentially, the Lagos-Calabar coastal road is an arterial road that connects the six geopolitical zones.
Synopsis of the Funding for the Coastal Road Project
The total estimated cost of the 700km Lagos-Calabar Coastal road project is put at N15.6 trillion. The funding model for the Lagos-Calabar coastal road project is EPC+ (Engineering, Procurement, Construction, and Financing) where the federal government would put up a counterpart financing of around 30% while the contractor funds the remainder.
Last October, FEC approved the EPC+ model for this project in favor of Hitech Construction company. Going by the estimated N15.6 trillion cost for the entire coastal road stretch, the federal government’s counterpart fund is around N4.68 trillion.
The federal government, in a bid to hasten the commencement of the project, decided to finance construction of the first 47km in phase 1 of the road project, which runs from Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island to the Lekki Deep Sea port. The contract sum of N1.06 trillion was awarded for this section by FEC to Hitech, and construction is ongoing with unprecedented speed.
Whatever funding FG is providing for this section of the road will come under the FG’s counterpart fund. I must emphasize that this funding model adopted by the Tinubu administration is the best model possible, considering the country’s revenue size. This is a monumental infra project being majorly funded with private finance. This is possible because the coastal road is extremely viable.
Benefits of the Coastal Road
Most of the unnecessary controversies that have been amplified by some people over this coastal road project have centered on demolition of structures along the path of the road, as well as misconceptions about the funding model, with critics of the project having an erroneous impression that the federal government would fund the entire project. Little attention has been paid to the staggering benefits that the Lagos-Calabar coastal road would bring about. I want to briefly lay them out now.
– Job Creation: Critics talk about exaggerated job losses that may be witnessed as a result of demolition of structures on the coastal road’s right of way, especially in Lagos, but few pause for a moment to look at the immense amount of new jobs that this massive project will create, both directly and indirectly.
Already, the project has started creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs courtesy of the actual construction work currently ongoing at multiple sections of the 47km stretch. The workers that would be part of this project are not ghosts; they are Nigerians. The construction of the railway component of this coastal road is another source of massive job creation. Hundreds of permanent jobs will also be required after completion of construction, as people would be engaged to carry out toll management, road maintenance, etc.
New industries, filling stations, CNG stations, auto-mechanic workshops, shopping malls, hotels, etc., will dot the iconic coastal road axis while creating many jobs in the process. This is one of the direct effects of having that road.
– GDP Growth: The Lagos-Calabar coastal project is a very important project with unparalleled economic value. This is a road that connects Nigeria’s biggest economic zone, Lekki Free Trade Zone housing the Dangote refinery, Lekki Deep sea port, and many existing and potential industries to the rest of the south and the north via a 10-lane dual carriageway. The potential impact of this road on our GDP growth is huge, considering the fact that it will facilitate an increase in economic activity as well as improve ease of movement of goods and people and invariably ease of doing business.
Like I mentioned earlier, the road will drastically cut down travel time between Lagos to the South-South and South-East to less than six hours through an alternative shorter route and open new corridors of development.
With the 1000km spur from Badagry in the Atlantic coast to Sokoto on the edge of the Sahel, we would also have a North-South modern highway that smoothens land transport, connectivity, and trade between the north and south. As a growing nation that keeps expanding, it doesn’t make sense to limit ourselves to existing roads (which are equally getting massive attention by the Renewed Hope administration). We need to plan for the future. When the 3rd Mainland bridge was being conceptualized, many back then argued that it was not necessary or not a priority since there were already two bridges connecting the Lagos island to the mainland, but look at the importance of the bridge today.
In fact, the Lagos State government has approved the design for the 4th mainland bridge – a more ambitious undertaking. That’s grand vision!
– Tourism: One of the most regurgitated lines by critics of the Lagos-Calabar coastal road project is that it would kill tourism (especially along the existing coastline in Lagos) and destroy our beaches (also especially in Lagos). How wrong they are! Contrary to this false insinuation, the most immediate impact of the new Lagos-Calabar coastal road is definitely going to be a massive boost in tourism.
This is not even debatable. Every known major coastal road across the world is always a magnet for tourism. The Lagos-Calabar coastal road, which will be one of the best coastal roads in the world upon completion, cannot be an exception. The coastal road is not going to run exclusively on the coastline. For example, around the Eleko axis, the road alignment is not on the beach front. Even in the landmark and Oniru beach axis, after construction of the coastal road, the tourism value of these areas would skyrocket.
It simply requires innovation by players in the tourism industry to make the most out of the coastal road. In fact, there are countless beaches along the path of the coastal road in Lagos, Ondo, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom that can become Nigeria’s top tourist destinations.
The Ilashe Island beach off the Lagos coast along the Badagry Creek with its beautifully arranged coconut trees and crystal white sand is one of such that can benefit from the Badagry spur.
The Ibeno beach in Akwa Ibom, which is the longest sand beach in West Africa and stretching for about 30 kilometers from Ibeno to James Town along the Atlantic coastline of Akwa Ibom State, is yet another tourism goldmine that the coastal road can trigger its extraction. It will only take innovative thinking and belief.
Sadly, many of our compatriots are instead exuding pessimism and pedestrian thinking with their opposition to this grand project.
As I conclude, I want to state that the hallmark of extraordinary leadership is having the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. A leader inspires the power and energy to get things done. He has a poorly developed sense of fear and overlooks the concept of the odds against him. His focus is not usually on the present nor on the obstacles that may stand in the way of his vision but on how to attain that vision by surmounting the obstacles.
While many critics of the colossal Lagos-Calabar coastal road are busy extrapolating how many decades it may take to complete the project using other existing roads of different models to judge or how the funding will come, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is looking at the various pathways that will deliver the project.
On the evidence of the pace of construction on the project sites, it is obvious that he has found many pathways. President Bola Tinubu is a visionary. He creates the vision of the future. He sees what others do not readily see, which is why people usually criticize his vision at the onset and later turn to embrace or even copy them. This is one of such times.
The birth of a modern Nigeria has begun with President Tinubu in charge and I have only one admonition for our dear compatriots who are still skeptical about this journey; Leave the talk, let’s face the business! | https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2024/05/06/lagos-calabar-coastal-road-leave-the-talk-lets-face-the-business/ | 2,453 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999947 |
Public health officials for years have urged Americans to limit consumption of red meat and processed meats because of concerns that these foods are linked to heart disease, cancer and other ills.
But on Monday, in a remarkable turnabout, an international collaboration of researchers produced a series of analyses concluding that the advice, a bedrock of almost all dietary guidelines, is not backed by good scientific evidence.
If there are health benefits from eating less beef and pork, they are small, the researchers concluded. Indeed, the advantages are so faint that they can be discerned only when looking at large populations, the scientists said, and are not sufficient to tell individuals to change their meat-eating habits.
“The certainty of evidence for these risk reductions was low to very low,” said Bradley Johnston, an epidemiologist at Dalhousie University in Canada and leader of the group publishing the new research in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The new analyses are among the largest such evaluations ever attempted and may influence future dietary recommendations. In many ways, they raise uncomfortable questions about dietary advice and nutritional research, and what sort of standards these studies should be held to.
Already they have been met with fierce criticism by public health researchers. The American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and other groups have savaged the findings and the journal that published them. | https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/30/health/red-meat-heart-cancer.html#click=https:///G6WcAr8vzn | 284 | Health | 3 | en | 0.999987 |
NHS urges men to masturbate after study says it can help ward off cancer
The findings, published in the journal European Urology, were the result of researchers from Harvard and Boston medical schools and universities studying 31,925 healthy men, who completed a questionnaire about their ejaculation frequency back in 1992.
These same men, who were aged 20-to-29, 40-to-49, were monitored until 2010 and during that time 3,839 of them were diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The findings, being widely reported this week, compare the 21-timers with men who ejaculate just four-to-seven times every four weeks.
The researchers found that the risk of prostate cancer in men aged between 20 and 29 and 40 and 49 was significantly reduced if they ejaculated at least 21 times a month, whether through sex or masturbation.
This was compared with men who ejaculated just four-to-seven times a month.
The NHS says prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK, with over 40,000 new cases diagnosed every year.
However, the researchers are not speculating on the reasons why ejaculating reduces the risk of prostate cancer. It is being reported that previous research hints at the possibility that ejaculation contributes to getting rid of cancer-causing elements and infections from the gland.
Inflammation is a known cause of cancer, and ejaculation may help to ease this.
They wrote: "We found that men reporting higher compared to lower ejaculatory frequency in adulthood were less likely to be subsequently diagnosed with prostate cancer."
The study has been featured on the NHS website, which notes a range of other factors - such as genetics, lifestyle, number of children, diet, nature of sexual activity and education - may also contribute to prostate cancer risk.
However the NHS website also says: "Despite any lurid tales you may have heard growing up, masturbation is entirely safe.
"So if you want to do it as a preventative method, then it wouldn't pose any health risks."
Initial signs of prostate cancer usually involve problems with urination, such as needing to urinate more frequently, due to the prostate getting larger. While prostate enlargement can occur as men grow older, it is important to check symptoms like these with your GP. | https://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/health/nhs-urges-men-to-masturbate-after-study-says-it-can-help-ward-off-cancer-845949 | 471 | Romance | 2 | en | 0.999989 |
June 12… Heroes, heroine of the people’s struggle
The ‘June 12’ battle was not for men of frail will. On the battle field were great fighters who dared the military. These democratic forces were scattered at home and abroad. Many lost their lives and property. When the fight became hotter, some developed cold feet, betrayed the cause and deserted the battle. However, many also endured the heat and fought to the end during the delicate period. Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU writes on the heroes and martyrs of the titanic struggle, whose persistent agitations heralded the restoration of civil rule in 1999.
The symbol of the struggle for democracy was the late Chief Moshood Abiola, the billionaire businessman, who wanted to use power to abolish poverty in Nigeria. Before he joined the race, he had established himself as a friend of top military brass and philanthropist. Apparently, the ruling military class underrated him as a presidential material, until it was too late. His credential was highly intimidating. Largely perceived as the liberator of the people from the military cage, Abiola received massive support, beating his rival, National Republican Convention (NRC)’s Bashir Tofa in his native Kano State. He pulled 8,341,309 votes, representing 58.36 percent of total votes. When former Military President Ibrahim Babangida annulled the election, there was sporadic protest. Up to now, the ghost of the cruel annulment still hunts the retired General. Abiola declared himself President-elect at Epetedo, Lagos Island. He was later arrested and detained by the Abacha regime. He fought on until he die in detention under Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, who succeeded Abacha.
The late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola was one of the numerous wives of the SDP presidential flag bearer. The annulment forced Kudirat into the pro-democracy movement. She developed a steely determination that dared military bullets. When her husband was in solitary confinement for claiming his presidential mandate, Kudirat confronted the military dictators. Her leadership motivated other pro-democracy groups to spring up and seek the actualisation of the election. In 1994, when the struggle got to a head, Kudirat was actively involved in sustaining the oil workers strike, which succeeded in crippling the nation’s economy and weakened the military government Kudirat had frictions with courts over her stance before her eventual release on bail. Despite this harassment, she continued her campaign. She and the late Chief Alfred Rewane funded the pro-democracy activities which unsettled the military. When protesters were detained, she would promptly visit police stations to secure their release. Kudirat knew that she was operating in an atmosphere of danger. She was planning to process her visa to leave the shores of Nigeria before she was killed. On June 4, 1996, a few days to the third anniversary of the June 12 election, Kudirat was shot dead by assassins in Oregun, Lagos State.
Prof. Soyinka, Nigerian playwright, poet, novelist, and implacable critic, is the first black African to bag the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. The former university don was one of the brains behind Radio Kudirat. Other frontline activists behind the opposition radio were Enahoro and Dr.Kayode Fayemi, who made broadcasts leaking plans by the soldiers to wipe out freedom fighters from Nigeria. It was the radio that alerted people to the plot to assassinate Ajasin and Adesanya. The Nobel Laureate was not new to prison walls through his activism. In 1994, Soyinka lived in exile in the US and France after leaving Nigeria. When the June 12 election was annulled, Soyinka played a key role in pressurising Abacha to rescind his decision. With his influence, he mounted a strong international campaign against Abacha’s dictatorial regime. In 1997 he was tried in absentia with other opposition members for a phony charge of bomb attacks against army. The Abacha regime sentenced Soyinka to death in absentia. He still lives to tell the tale. With Soyinka at the Radio Kudirat was the activist, Dr. Fayemi, who is now Ekiti State governor. His role in the struggle is well documented in his book Out of Shadows.
Chief Adekunle Ajasin, former governor of Ondo State, doubled as Afenifere and NADECO leader. He was a principled fighter and moral voice who offered inspiration to the democratic forces. Already an old man, Ajasin, despite the threat to his health and safety, never wavered. The Owo politician had objected to the participation of progressives in Abacha government, but Abiola, in his naivety, prevailed on him to give his consent. His bedroom was invaded by former Governor Ibe Onyearu-gbulem, who had the mandate from Abacha to make Ondo State uncomfortable for the NADECO forces. In August 1995, he took ill and on his return from his foreign medical trip, he renewed his quest for the revalidation of the June 12 mandate. In June 1995, he was arrested by the military alongside others for holding a meeting, but was released 24 hours later. Eventually, he passed on when the battle was still hot.
During the dark days, the late Pa Alfred Rewane used his pen and money to fight the military to a standstill. He was a pillar of financial support for all NADECO and many human rights activities. His motive was the de-annulment of the June 12 election. He also personally campaigned against official graft in high places, lack of accountability and gross violation of human rights by the military. But in October 6, 1995, he was murdered in curious circumstances which elicited wide outcry.
The elder statesman, lawyer and former senator, Chief Abraham Adesanya became the leader of Afenifere after the death of Ajasin. His Personal Assistant was Rev. Tunji Adebiyi. Adesanya’s compatriots in the group who also fought the military were Chiefs Ganiyu Dawodu, Bola Ige, Lam Adesina, Ayo Adebanjo, Olaniwun Ajayi, Solanke Onasanya, Femi Okunrounmu, Olabiyi Durojaye, and Cornelius Adebayo. Some of them suffered bruises. Rev. Adebiyi was bearing a letter from NADECO leaders in Lagos to Ajasin at Owo when he was arrested at 10 pm at Maryland by the police. Persistent pleas by Mrs. Kudirat Abiola secured his release. Adesina was captured by soldiers during a protest at Ibadan as “prisoner of war”. Durojaye, Adebanjo and Dawodu were detained. Assassins were also trailing Aremo Segun Osoba. He escaped been hit by bullets by whiskers. Death came calling in January, 1997, but Adesanya also miraculously escaped assassin’s bullets. He remained undaunted to the end. Under his leadership, Afenifere intensified the battle for promoting the virtues of minority rights, equality, federalism and nationalism.
The late Chief Anthony Enahoro, nationalist and elder statesman was, no doubt, one of Nigeria’s foremost pro-democracy activists. He was the chairman of NADECO’s Steering Committee. In 1995, he was detained for almost three months without any charge by Abacha. Before he escaped abroad, he was a torn in the flesh of the military. He also chaired the Movement for National Reformation (MNR) and the Pro-National Conference Organisation (PRONACO). Enahoro was actually the leader of NADECO abroad.
The late Chief Gani Fawehinmi was an outstanding lawyer and world-acclaimed human rights crusader. He was an advocate of de-annulment. For daring the military, he was detained for a long period by the military government. He provided legal, moral and financial support for freedom fighters. He was a target of liquidation by the military.
Among those who offered intellectual support for NADECO activities were Prof. Akinyemi, former Foreign Affairs Minister, Segun Gbadegesin, Ropo Sekoni, Ade Banjo and Adebayo Williams. They wrote numerous incisive articles denouncing the annulment, military rule and rights violation. They were targets of attacks by the military. They fled the country to continue the onslaught abroad. Banjo had purchased 3,000 riffles to launch a guerrilla war against Abacha. He was caught and detained before he escaped to Ghana. If the asylum proposed by Prof. Akinyemi had been accepted, Abiola may not have been killed. But the chief rejected the asylum, saying that the President-elect of the most populous nation in Africa could not be seeking asylum in American Embassy.
The oil workers strike rattled the late Gen. Abacha. The credit goes to Chief Frank Kokori, a fearless Labour leader and former Secretary-General of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). In 1994, the pro-democracy activist led the oil workers to a sustained strike over the annulment of the June 12, election, leading to the paralysis of the social and economic lives of the nation, to the embarrassment of Abacha’s junta. He was arrested on August 20, same year by the security operatives and was moved round different prisons, mostly in the northern part of the country. The incarceration, however, did not stop his activism.
An American diplomat, who served as United States Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Nigeria between 1993 and 1997, Walter Carrington lent support to the fight for democracy in Nigeria. He stood resolutely with pro-democracy activists during the pro-June 12 agitation. He condemned Babangida for annulling the election widely adjudged free and fair. He expressed great concern over the abuse of human rights and the steady descent of Nigeria into a police state under the military. His remarks were weighty and they influenced America to mount pressure on military to vacate power.
Chief Ayo Adebanjo is a fearless politician who does not hide his principled views, no matter whose oz is gorged. He was staunch member of NADECO who has played opposition politics for many decades. Despite the threat to his life and property, he was resolute in the fight for the restoration of Abiola’s mandate. It was ironic, because Abiola and his leader, Awolowo, never politically opposed to one another. Since he passed on, Adebanjo has been calling for the immortalisation of Abiola.
Former Minister of Housing and Environment, the late Dr. Dosunmu, was a close associate of Abiola from the NPN days. He was involved in the activities of NADECO from the scratch. He and Olufemi Lanlehin were instructed by their group, Primose, which later became Lagos Justice Forum, to attend the inaugural meeting of the group in Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo’s Ikeja residence. He was a signatory to the memorandum submitted by Afenifere at the formative stage of the association. Dosunmu, Prince Ademola Adeniji-Adele, Tokunbo Afikuyomi, Omotilewa Aro-Lambo, Senator Ajayi from Ekiti, Hon. Adesina from Abeokuta, and Sikiru Shitta-Bey were also involved in the presidential declaration arrangement at Epetedo, Lagos Island.
Ayo Opadokun was the General Secretary of the Afenifere and NADECO. He fought the military for democracy to flourish in Nigeria. For five years, he was in detention. By the time he was released, he had become a poor man. It is painful to him that, after the restoration of the civil rule, charlatans, military apologists and collaborators became the beneficiaries of the battle in 1999.
The Cicero of Esa-Oke, the late Chief Bola Ige, had shunned the IBB transition programme, following Awo’s admonition to his followers to learn to dine with the devil with a long spoon. However, the entry of the late Chief Bola Ige, after the expiration of ‘siddon look’ period, inspired the pro-democracy agitators to fight on. He was a leading fighter under NADECO and Afenifere, where he was deputy leader. Ige had a caustic tongue, which he used to bite the Abacha regime. It was he who described the five political parties of that period as five fingers of a leprous hand. he was detained at Epe.
Olawale Osun is a former Chief Whip of the House of Representatives. When the IBB regime cancelled the election, he was among the legislators who denounced the criminal act. He was one of the few people that planned the ‘Epetedo Declaration’ for Abiola. When Opadokun was seized by the military, he became NADECO secretary. He was later released, after which he fled abroad to continue the fight. He wrote his book, ‘Clapping with one hand’, in detention.
Ebitu Ukiwe, a retired Navy Commodore and Chief of General Staff from 1985 to 1986, was one of the notable actors in the pro-democracy struggle in the beginning. Most Nigerians believe that Ukiwe lost his post due to his principled nature. Knowing that Ukiwe could not pushed around, Babangida replaced him with Augustus Aikhomu. However, Ukiwe reduced his participation when his life was on line.
The former governor of Imo and Lagos states joined the democracy groups in retirement and was in the forefront of the agitation for the actualization of the mandate. Abacha was particularly worried at his involvement in the agitation to halt his inglorious rule. He once told him to deck his khaki and face him with his gun, instead of joining forces with civilians to rubbish him. When he persisted in his NADECO activities, his businesses were crippled by the military. His private residence was searched by security agents. He was accused of planning to importing arms and ammunitions.
Among the organisations that formed NADECO was the Eastern Mandate Union (EMU) led by the irrepressible advocate of human rights and good governance, Nwankwo. He shared that virtue of consistency and bravery with Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife and Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, who were prominent NADECO chieftains. A fierce speaker and prolific writer, Nwankwo was never afraid of detention camps.
Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, a former SDP presidential aspirant, founded the Oodua Peoples Congress to press for the de-annulment of the election. He was one of the founding fathers of NADECO. He was detained for a long time by the military for fighting the cause.
The former governor of Kaduna State refused to join the bandwagon of tribal egoists. He believed that June 12 offered a redemptive option to the country in its quest for legitimate leadership. To him, the annulment was a national calamity and the struggle was not a sectional affair as wrongly projected by military spin doctors. On few occasions too, prominent northern leaders, including the late Dr. Ibrahim Tahir, spoke forcefully against Babangida regime for foisting an avoidable crisis on the country.
As military governor of Kaduna State, Col. Abubakar Umar (rtd), Admiral Ndubusi Kanu (rtd), had shown the tendency of a radical. The political scientist was of the view that the military had overstayed in power to the detriment of the masses. Col. Abubakar Umar Dangiwa (rtd) spoke forcefully in defense of the Abiola. To him, the symbol was not the main issue, but the seizure of the nation’s collective passport for a genuine flight to the horizon of democratic progress.
In the Third Republic, he was a senator. In the Upper Chamber, he was the rallying point for senators seeking an end to military rule. He challenged IBB to a duel. When the military leader annulled the poll, he demanded for explanations. Tinubu dared the military, urging the masses to resist the brutal act. He was briefly detained and released. After escaping abroad, he became one of the leaders and financial pillars of NADECO abroad.
These were NADECO members based in Ondo State. Prominent among the members of the group were Chief Segun Adegoke, a lawyer and Awoist and the late Adebayo Adefarati.
The former Secretary to the Federal Military Government and Finance Minister was very active in Afenifere and NADECO. He was one of the ardent supporters of Abiola during the battle for the revalidation of the annulled results. Other Afenifere leaders who were active during the struggle included Senator Ayo Fasanmi, who resigned from the Constitutional Conference Commission set up by Abacha, Chief Supo Sonibare, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, Baba Omojola, Chief Rafiu Jafojo, Chief S.K. Babalola, and Rev. Tunji Adebiyi. Before they joined Abacha government, the duo of Alhaji Lateef Jakande and Chief Ebenezer Babatope were also at the forefront of the clamour for the de-annulment of the june 12, 1993 election.
A disciple of Awo and former federal legislator, the late Alhaji Lam Adesina was always opposed to military rule. He had used his column to spite the soldiers of fortune who milked the country dry. For participating in the anti-military demonstrations at Ibadan, Oyo State capital, Adesina was ‘captured’ by the Military Administrator, Col. Usman, as a prisoner of war. He languished in detention.
The activist-cleric, Rt. Rev. Bolanle Gbonigi, was nicknamed the ‘NADECO Bishop’ because of his principled position on June 12. He decried the injustice from the pulpit and offered moral and spiritual support to the pro-democracy agitators.
Gen. Alani Akinrinade (rtd) was one of the leaders of NADECO abroad, who committed enormous time, energy and resources to the struggle for justice. His private residence at Ikeja was torched by suspected government agents. The same tribulation befell his compatriot, Dr, Amos Akingba, a former university don. He was harassed by the military. His residence was also attacked in Lagos.
A gallant soldier, Sulaiman, a former Minister of Communications, joined the democratic forces in decrying the annulment and incarceration of the symbol of the struggle.
Labour, right groups
Human rights leaders-Dr Beko Ransom-Kuti, his brother, Prof. Olikoye Ransom-Kuti, Femi Falana, Femi Aborisade, Chima Ubani, Joe Igbokwe, Olisa Agbakoba, Ayo Obe, Rev. Fr. Mathew Kukah, Ebun Adegoruwa, Clement Nwankwo, Felix Tuodolo, Debo Adeniran, Ima Niboro, Akinola Orisagbemi, who was Personal Assistant to Mrs. Kudirat Abiola, Innocent Chukwuma, Bunmi Aborisade, and numerous activists under the banners of the Nigeria Bar Association, Nigeria Medical Association, Nigeria Labour Congress, NUJ, PENGASSAN, NUPENG, Lagos Justice Forum, and NANS made invaluable contributions to the struggle. | http://thenationonlineng.net/june-12-heroes-heroine-of-the-peoples-struggle/ | 4,187 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999553 |
The human body—God’s masterpiece
The human brain is ‘ … the most complex and orderly arrangement of matter in the universe’. Isaac Asimov
‘I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well’ (Psalm 139:14).
A new twist on blood vessels
Blood vessels are not just straight-through tubes, like water pipes, as was thought. Scientists at Imperial College, London, found that blood vessels have a slight twist to them—they are helical. Colin Caro and Spencer Sherwin showed that the gentle corkscrewing makes the blood flow more evenly compared to straight vessels. They found that, with helical vessels, damage from turbulent flow was much less likely, especially at T-junctions. Smooth flow also encourages the production of health-promoting protective substances.
This could be very important in bypass surgery where veins from a patient’s leg are used to replace sections of clogged arteries around the heart. If surgeons were to give the replacement a slight twist, it could result in a longer time before the vessels clog again.
New Scientist 158(2134):19, May 16, 1998.
Our Creator’s attention to detail is extraordinary.
We live in an amazing world. The greatest of all creations is man himself, the marvellous machine—precise and efficient. The human body has a dynamic framework of bone and cartilage called the skeleton. The human skeleton is flexible, with hinges and joints that were made to move. But to cut down harmful frictions, such moving parts must be lubricated.
Man-made machines are lubricated only by outside sources. But the body lubricates itself by manufacturing a jelly-like substance in the right amount at every place it is needed. Yes, the body is a wonder machine, despite the defects from genetic copying errors (mutations) that have accumulated since the Fall of man brought on the Curse (Genesis 3).
The body has a chemical plant far more intricate than any plant that man has ever built. This plant changes the food we eat into living tissue. It causes the growth of flesh, blood, bones and teeth. It even repairs the body when parts are damaged by accident or disease. Power, for work and play, comes from the food we eat.
Even in freezing weather our bodies will sometimes overheat. The body’s own cooling system then takes over. Drops of perspiration pour from millions of tiny sweat glands in the skin. This is a major way in which our cooling system keeps our temperature down. The human body has an automatic thermostat that takes care of both our heating and cooling systems, keeping body temperature at about 37°C (98.6°F).
The brain is the centre of a complex computer system more wonderful than the greatest one ever built by man. The body’s computer system computes and sends throughout the body billions of bits of information, information that controls every action, right down to the flicker of an eyelid. In most computer systems, the information is carried by wires and electronic parts. In the body, nerves are the wires that carry the information back and forth from the central nervous system. And in just one human brain there is probably more wiring, more electrical circuitry, than in all the computer systems of the world put together.1 Yes, it is a wonderful thing—this brain of ours.
In fact, as we look at this very moment, we are actually seeing with our brain. Although, of course, the message is carried there from another marvellous structure, the human eye. Modern cameras operate on the same basic principle as our eyes. In our eye the focus and aperture are adjusted automatically.
The sound we hear is being played on a perfect little musical instrument inside our ear. The sound waves go down the auditory canal and are carried by the bones of the middle ear to the cochlea, which is rolled up like a tiny sea shell. The outer ear operates in air. But the cochlea is filled with liquid, and transferring sound waves from air to liquid is one of the most difficult problems known to science. Three tiny bones called the ossicles are just right to do the job that enables us to hear properly. Interestingly, the size of these little bones does not change from the time we are born.
The heart actually is a muscular pump forcing blood through thousands of miles of blood vessels. Blood carries food and oxygen to every part of the body. The heart pumps an average of six litres (1.5 U.S. gallons) of blood every minute, and in one day pumps enough blood to fill more than forty 200-litre (50-gallon) drums.
Yes, the human body is a wonderful machine. The fact that any one of these devices exists is a complete demonstration that they are the work of an intelligent and skilful designer, God Himself. ‘So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them’ (Genesis 1:27).
The raw material, the basic chemicals in our body, can be found in the ‘dust of the ground’. However, these chemicals cannot arrange themselves into cell tissues, organs and systems. This can only happen with an input of intelligence.
The book of Genesis teaches that God took ‘the dust of the ground’, a heap of chemicals, shaped a man and then blew into his nostrils the breath of life. Then man became a living soul. Human beings are different from animals, for ‘God created man in his own image’ (Genesis 1:27). Our bodies have been designed with the ability to pass on to the next generation the programmed information required to form another person from simple chemicals.
We are more than the chemicals that form our body. We are a special creation of God. Man is God’s masterpiece—His workmanship, the crown of creation.
The best in the universe …
’Without a doubt, the most complex information-processing system in existence is the human body. If we take all human information processes together, i.e. conscious ones (language, information-controlled, deliberate voluntary movements) and unconscious ones (information-controlled functions of the organs, hormone system), this involves the processing of 1024 bits daily. This astronomically high figure is higher by a factor of 1,000,000 [i.e., is a million times greater] than the total human knowledge of 1018 bits stored in all the world’s libraries.’
Dr Werner Gitt, in Information: The Third Fundamental Quantity, (reprint from) Siemens Review, 56(6), November/December 1989.
- According to the technical discussion the author had with Dr Ratnakant Sanjay, M.D., of Bangalore, India. Return to text.
Comments are automatically closed 14 days after publication. | https://creation.com/the-human-body-gods-masterpiece | 1,454 | Religion | 3 | en | 0.999981 |
Collateral Victims Of Diseases & Economic Hardships Are Black & Poor
Sometimes most people of Goodwill, regardless of color, wonder how rugged and durable Africans survived all the impediments and odds they face daily. Even in their own Continent, not to talk about Diaspora. Yet, Africans disrespect one another more than other natural biological animals. Compare that to how people that have faced adversity in their history love and support one another.
Telling the Youths they have to work twice as hard as their cohorts sounds so strange to them, they wonder if their parents are serious. It becomes incredible if told they may suffer the same consequences in their own countries where leaders and politicians that look like them are stooges for outside powers, just for selfish greed. History is becoming more difficult to teach at home since some schools no longer offer it.
Natural human reaction to a hostile environment is flight or fight back. We cannot remain in a stage of preparedness all the time without wear and tear on our Defense Mechanism. This state leads to hypertension, shortness of breath, asthma, emphysema, fear of starving leading to craving for food or obesity, diabetes leading to downward spiral into opportunistic infections. Therefore, when we claim we do not have control or there is nothing we can do about pre-existing conditions, of course there are!
It is not by accident or coincidence that Africa and Diaspora Africans always catch the worst end of the shaft. Being Predisposed is a systemic act that shields others before they are hit with most of the diseases and Economic hardships afflicting Blacks. COVID-19, Devaluations and Structural Adjustment are examples of the same waves hitting minorities at home or in Diaspora.
We are not supposed to express Environmental Justice or the injustices perpetrated for fear of being labelled. Africans and minorities outside our continent and countries where they are not in power are always predisposed to Economic hardships and live closer to environmental dumps. When the majority sneeze, minorities catch pneumonia. It is always explained as being predisposed.
The International Monetary Fund and World Bank have their carrot and stick methods of bringing developing countries in line with the Economic Order favored by their Sponsors. Money or credit extended to them is to trade with Sponsors according to prices dictated, not by negotiation. The money must be used to clear existing loans, interest and penalties. If they are dictating the price and currencies of trade, it is an advantageous relationship at the expense of the weaker partners to make their markets more liberal or open only to their finished goods and services.
African countries cannot sleep with their eyes closed. No matter how many trained economists foreigners train and hire. Foreign Investors Portfolios countries will continue to devour Africa unless we learn how to arm ourselves with poison pills. Stop borrowing and trading in foreign currencies and establish African wide common currency. Whoever wants to trade in Africa must raise the demand for African currency to make it stronger.
The world's greatest debtor only trades in its own currency. It cannot not default because it can print its own money if other countries stopped buying its Treasuries or bonds. Default is only tactical and no country can do anything about it if a nuclear power defaulted. When Zambia defaulted, the Chinese took over a part of the Country. The Japanese billionaire Hideki Yokoi once bought the Empire State Building in New York only to sell it back at a discount. Who can take over any part of the USA?
Then comes Debt Trap Diplomacy by Odious Loans by China: Tanzania recently rejected Chinese loans as India did. It makes you wonder about the mentality of those that negotiated the loans in the first place. It was negotiated by the previous Administration as a loan agreement with Chinese investors to build Tanzania Port on condition that the Chinese would get it for 30 years and 99 years uninterrupted lease.
India and Bangladesh had also rejected Chinese loans. When it was revealed in the Delhi High Court that the Indian government had agreed to pay $3.9 million for Covid-19 kits that had been imported from China at a cost of $1.6 million, with the difference going to Indian intermediaries. Even Bangladesh, learning from Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives debt trap, decided to construct its biggest infrastructure project from its own finances.
Indeed, the main source of foreign income for a couple of African countries, Oil, is going to dry up because the price of international oil in the market entered negative territory. Anyone that can add the depressed price of oil and the economic impact of COVID-19 in Africa knows that Nigeria will face a challenge it had not lived up to in the past.
Look at Senegal, a country that meets the crisis of the day, COVID-19 head-on with one US dollar mask and $50.00 ventilator. Yet African countries are not "rushing" to patronize Senegal or learning, replicating and improving their success as a world class solution. We know if this was an American or European made, corrupt politicians all over Africa could have bombarded them for imported products by inflated contacts.
Disclaimer: "The views expressed on this site are those of the contributors or columnists, and do not necessarily reflect TheNigerianVoice’s position. TheNigerianVoice will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here." | https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/amp/news/287589/collateral-victims-of-diseases-economic-hardships-are-blac.html | 1,101 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999992 |
When we hear the statement “Things fall apart”, what comes to mind? Right! we all know it’s Chinua Achebe’s book.
The book “Things fall apart”, is one of the first recognised novel, which was written by an African writer. Achebe wrote the book from an absolute African perspective, though there are elements of British colonialism and the activities of the missionaries to convert African people, Achebe focused his theme basically on the end of the traditional Igbo way of life.
He portrayed the patriarchy lifestyle of the Igbo folks where women cannot own lands and take up leadership roles, the Igbo culture also supports a meritocracy, promoting people on worth rather than class or status.
He also wanted to portray Africans as he knew them and as a contrast to the image given by Conrad Joseph in his book titled “Heart of Darkness”. The Igbo people (and other Africans) were not savages. They had a well-established way of life that the Europeans could not understand and, as a result, had no respect for.
Things really did “fall apart” by the end as it became clear to the main character (Okonkwo) that his people will never be able to return to life as it was before the “Scramble for Africa” began.
The book has a simple but powerful story with strong characters, great set of event, paced narration and a wonderful spirit for self-identity and self-respect. The book helps in understanding an integral part of the African culture and history. The book has been widely read across the African continent and beyond. If you are looking for a new read by Chinua Achebe, “Arrow of God” is another masterpiece. | https://olatorera.com/chinua-achebes-greatest-book-of-all-time/ | 372 | Literature | 3 | en | 0.999989 |
SCIENTISTS say they have found how the lethal Ebola virus blocks and disables the body’s ability to battle infections in a discovery that should help the search for potential cures and vaccines.
A group of scientists in the United States found that Ebola carries a protein called VP24 that interferes with a molecule called interferon, which is vital to the immune response.
“One of the key reasons that Ebola virus is so deadly is because it disrupts the body’s immune response to the infection,” said Chris Basler of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, who worked on the study. “Figuring out how VP24 promotes this disruption will suggest new ways to defeat the virus.”
The team, lead by Gaya Amarasinghe from Washington University School of Medicine, found that VP24 works by stopping something called “transcription factor STAT1” – which carries interferon’s antiviral message – from entering the nucleus of a cell and initiating an immune response.
“This study shows just how nefarious the Ebola virus can be,” said Ben Neuman, a virologist at Britain’s university of Reading who was not directly involved in this study.
“Ebola virus carries a small tool that intercepts the cell’s distress signals, and when this happens, it disables some of the most useful machinery that our bodies have for fighting Ebola. That leaves the body with only crude defences that are less effective at stopping the virus, and end up causing much of the damage that can eventually lead to death.”
Ebola is one of the most deadly diseases known in humans and has a case fatality rate of up to 90 percent. In the current epidemic in West Africa, the virus has infected more than 1,800 people. So far, 1,013 of these have died the vast majority in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/scientists-discover-ebola-virus-disables-immune-response/#sthash.ru5HhPBG.dpuf | 423 | Health | 3 | en | 0.999983 |
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotions are present in everything you think, do, and say each day on the job, in your career, and throughout your life. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is how you handle yourself and others. Your EQ taps into a fundamental element of human behavior that is distinct from your intellect and personality. It affects how you manage your behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions that achieve positive results.
People who develop their emotional intelligence communicate more effectively, handle stress and conflict productively, are better team players, are able to navigate change, and also perform at a higher level.
The Power of Emotional Intelligence: How EQ Can Transform Your Life
We often hear about Emotional Intelligence, but what exactly is it? Can it really impact our success? The answer is, yes! Unlike personality or IQ, emotional intelligence is a skill that one can develop, and it is absolutely essential for personal growth and development as well as social awareness and relational competence. There are four key components: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
Self-awareness is your ability to accurately perceive your emotions in the moment and understand your tendencies across situations. In times when you are pushed to your breaking point, are you aware of it? When the sudden moment that frustration or anger peaks or the slow, dull build-up of tension and stress culminates—are you aware of how those emotions are impacting your reactions and behavior? How do those emotions feel physically? Does your heart race or your shoulders tense? The first step in strong emotional intelligence is being cognizant of and quickly making sense of your emotions as they are happening.
Then, in those crucial moments, can you effectively manage yourself to control the impulses and immediate reactions of that emotion? Self-management is your ability to use your awareness of your emotions to stay flexible and direct your behavior positively. What if those emotions might be detrimental to the situation or the interaction? Can you pause and reflect before that emotion dictates your reaction? This self-management skill is essential in how you interact with the world around you.
Once you have mastered your own self emotional intelligence, social awareness helps you learn about and appreciate other people. Social awareness is about listening and observing people to better perceive emotions and understand what’s really going on with them. Do you have the capacity to recognize, acknowledge and empathize with the person across from you? Are you aware of the “emotions in the room?” Can you see the moment the energy shifts? If you can recognize the emotions of the people around you, you are one step closer to being able to impact that situation.
The final component of EQ is relationship management. The ability to be aware of the social factors that are influencing the dynamics in the room are half of the equation. The most challenging element that truly separates highly emotionally intelligence individuals from the pack is the ability to manage social situations successfully. Can you pivot and redirect a conversation in the moment? Can you adjust and shift your behavior to change the course of events? This is the power of emotional intelligence. | http://www.talentsmart.com/about/emotional-intelligence.php | 634 | Education | 3 | en | 0.99999 |
Towards a functional education curriculum
Education is crucial in any society for the preservation of lives of its members and the maintenance of social structure. In the history of our pre-colonial existence, we are told from folk tales that our ancient people had unique ways of documenting events, such that they could go to the wall were they inscribed some marks and tell their children or relations what exactly transpired on that day. They equally developed a system of oral communication, traditional norms and values which they passed on to their children and generations. Nigeria was a colony of British imperialist until flag independence was granted on October Ist, 1960 and the conferment of a status of a Republic in 1963. Notwithstanding the divergent views held by scholars of History, it can be rightly argued that the contribution of Britain in the civilization process of Nigeria is an indelible milestone that propelled Nigeria's march from a primordial and classically primitive antecedent into continental and global political relevance.
There is no doubt that Nigeria as a nation had witnessed a series of Educational Systems since its birth in 1914. Immediately after independence in Nigeria, there were a lot of ills and shortcomings in Nigerian educational system as it was based on the British educational system which did not pave way for yearning needs, interests and aspirations of Nigerian society. Upon the attainment of independence in 1960, there was the call for outright rejection of the education legacy of the former British overlords. According to Babatunde Fafunwa, the educational system should meet the yearnings and aspirations of the nation. Towards accomplishing just that, there was the need to re-appraise its goals, objectives and content. This was the reason for holding the National Conference on Curriculum Development at Lagos in September 1969. The central message of the conference was the promotion of national consciousness and self-reliance via educational training. About 8 years after the conference, precisely 1977, a National Policy on Education was produced. The document had been revised in 1981, 1989 and 2004. Altogether, the 61-page policy document has thirteen sections.
Paradoxically, in spite of her enormous natural and human resources, Nigeria's education system is bedevilled with myriad of problems. However, with this retinue of problems that plague our educational system, successive administrations have paid lip service to the issue of a functional school curriculum. Comparatively speaking, Nigeria's education system is rather quantitative than qualitative-oriented. A lot of people have alleged that military incursion into politics is substantially responsible for the devastating deterioration in the objectives and goals of our school system. A sad incidence of history was the forceful takeover of private and missionary schools which were pacesetters in boarding and efficient classroom administration. This is why the plans by some Governors to return schools to their original private and proprietors have been accorded with thunderous applauses.
I remembered that I was once playing with one of my nephews and I asked him to sing nursery rhyme for me. I was disappointed when the young boy started singing “London Bridge is falling down; London Bridge is falling down …etc”. I asked him what lessons can be deduced from the nursery rhyme and to my utter amazement he told me the lessons therein and even volunteered to tell me the origin of the song. I was really held spellbound by the level of intelligent quotient of my six-year old nephew. However I was disappointed when I asked him to tell me what he knows about Chibok. He said what is Chy-boz (as pronounced by him)? I further asked him if he has ever heard of Biafra and he said no. This is a sad reality of happenings in our education system. These are the supposedly leaders of tomorrow that are expected to come and resolve the problems in Nigeria. How can one solve a problem he does know its history? I asked myself if one can give what he does not have. Physical and Health Education teacher spends considerable time telling students about how Diego Maradona once ruled the world and nobody ever discusses how our own Sam Okwaraji (PhD) died while playing on the field. Our Religious teachers spend hours telling their students how Jesus Christ came to die for the sins of the world and nobody discusses how our own Moremi saved the people of Ile-Ife from insurgents. Our Fine Arts teachers spend hours telling students about how Monalisa was once the most beautiful damsel in the world and nobody ever find it deem fit to talk about Queen Amina. History teachers spend hours telling us about how Adolf Hitler held the whole world to ransom and nobody ever find it deem fit to talk about how our own Efunsetan Aniwura gave the Olubadan a run for his monies.
Often times, I look at the historical materials that are uploaded online and I cried when I see the ways Nigeria histories are being distorted. I remembered that my Yoruba teacher in secondary school taught me that Ogun is the god of iron; Sango is the god of thunder; Orunmila is the god of Ifa. I was having this mindset about these teachings until I entered the University and my Professor of African Philosophy told me that Ogun was never the god of iron or Sango the god of thunder; ditto for other purportedly claims about Africans gods. She said Ogun was an inventor who discovered irons, Sango was an inventor who discovered fire and Orunmila discovered mathematics. These were people that were turned to demi-gods because of the innovations they brought to human beings. It is time that we have Nigeria histories written by Nigerians. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti said, he was told Mungo Park discovered Rivers Niger as if it was not people that were staying around River Niger before the expedition of Mungo Park.
The question has become, what is wrong with the Nigeria educational system? It is no gainsaying that due to laudable programmes put in place by various governments in Nigeria in improving the quality of Education in Nigerian society, much has not been achieved in really carving out policies that will suit the entire society. The utmost importance attached to education in Nigeria was clearly underscored in the National Policy on Education. But despite the government's commitment to education, the quality of education in our schools has been declining tremendously, thereby giving successive government's serious concern. Before independence, the system was administered by different sets of managers including the Christian missionaries, the colonial government and the regional governments. Since independence in 1960, the federal, state and local governments have played significant roles in the administration of education in the country. Lack of a functional educational policy caused by poor administration has been the bane of the education system since inception. Poor administration is displayed in different ugly forms including poor timing of policy inauguration and programme implementation. Statistical constraint, financial constraint and political constraint have contributed to the problem of poor management. For the system to survive, there is the need on the part of the nation to ensure political stability. It is only, when the polity is stable and all the tiers of government display the necessary political will that we can have a working education system. The system will thus be invigorated and made fully prepared for the challenges in the future.
The results of this lack of functional educational policy are not far-fetched. We witness everyday as young girls and boys are being used as terrorists. I don't see any student that is well grounded in formal education becoming a militant. An idle hand is the devil workshop. Schools are teaching our students half truth. There is a vacuum in our education system and this vacuum has been capitalized on by insurgents. The moral upbringings that should accompany our scientific, technological and artistic achievements have been relegated completely to the background. Scientific and technological achievements are growing at a geometric progression while moral teachings are growing at arithmetic progression.
I have argued at different occasions that government should stop fighting insurgents with physical weapons. Take it or leave it, the war against insurgents is war against an ideology that has been taught our brothers and sisters in the north as the acceptable way of life. The Boko Haram insurgents are educated in the real sense of it but they are educated to hate books. Funny enough, they are not sufficiently educated about even their religion, to know that some of the greatest philosophers came from that religion. Some of the greatest mathematicians were, the pioneers, Muslims; Islamic scholars. These insurgents have been taught on monorail and this is just one-track mind. So they need to be educated about their own history and their own culture. Inasmuch as I approved of the attempt to create the so called 'Almajiri Schools', I think it is of paramount importance that the content and the method of teaching is supervised and control. You don't fight an ideology with guns. One needs superior ideology to fight an evil ideology. Succinctly put, ideologies are patterned clusters of normatively imbued ideas and concepts, including particular representations of power relations. These conceptual maps help people navigate the complexity of their political universe and carry claims to social truth. Ideology, especially the one that has grown into dogmas, always paves the way towards atrocity. We should however take cognizance of the fact that it is a huge mistake to become married to an ideology, especially when the ideology is not one that has been really thought through. Ideology is a man-made format of how the world ought to work. However, literacy and ideology are inseparable. Literacy helps to thwart intolerance, challenge dogma, and reinforce our common humanity while ideology does the opposite.
Ministry of Education is too sensitive a ministry to be manned by mediocre because mediocrity today lead to greater mediocrity tomorrow. How can ministry of education be manned by someone who managed to graduate from the university with a pass? You can definitely not give what you don't have. I have been opportune to work with some Professors and I kept wondering why these eggheads are not in the saddle of ministry of education. It is only in Nigeria that one will see a sitting Commissioner of Education fighting in his own political ward for who becomes the next political appointee. Haba! Most Commissioners of Education would rather prefer attending coronation of their state party chairman than attending the graduation ceremony of secondary schools students in their respective states. Funny enough, these set of commissioners would be the first to say that Nigeria graduates are not employable. I am suggesting that we close down all educational institutions in the country for a while and go back to Zero and restart or re-plan our entire educational system and retune our minds to what educational system is supposed to be about.
It is high time we revisited the Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) programme of some private companies. These days one see companies spending billions on CSR project that camp youths for 30days in a supposedly reality show programme and asking participants to be bathing nude, kissing and engaging in all sorts of immoral activities; and this same company will spend 200,000 naira for spelling bee competition or Debate competition. I have questioned the rationale behind some music reality show program. Must every Nigerian youth become Michael Jackson, Diana Ross or Uti Nwachukwu of Big Brother Africa? Is it a sin for Nigeria to produce the next generation of Nelson Mandela, Bill Gates, Henry Ford, and Desmond Tutu? So what our leaders are telling us is that the next generation of Nigerian youth they want is musician that can do moon walking? I am still thinking aloud! Even some state governments have started following the same line of action. Some state government don't mind spending billions on carnivals, beach party while their educational system is in shambles. How can we be leaders of tomorrow when the necessary empowerments we need to accomplish that are readily not at our disposal? The supposedly leaders of tomorrow cannot write or speak simple and correct English grammars, cannot run a good business, are not politically conscious, etc and none of our political leaders seem to be bothered about this trend? I hope to see government coming with a law that every CSR project must at least promote educating Nigerian youth positively. Something likes CSR Education Content Law. A committee manned by educationists/technocrats can be set up to ensure implementation of this law. We should however note that the capacity of any nation to compete favourably with the most advanced economies of the world depends on the ability to meet the fast growing demands for high level skills. An educated citizenry and a competent workforce are necessary in order to strengthening our young democracy and also our ability to compete in a global economy.
Revamping of the goals of technical education in contemporary Nigeria, the state of our technical education is sad commentary. I recall with nostalgia the good old days when technical schools symbolized future technocrats and technologists. As a matter of fact, Introductory Technology was introduced into the post primary school system in my time, and the objective was to boost our consciousness of industrial and mechanical elements as critical agents of industrialization of Nigeria. Somewhere, somehow, the story turned bizarre and we are so industrially backward as a nation that we import tooth-pick, comb, needle and threads from the Asian countries that used to be far behind our Country in terms of National development index. What an absurdity! These things could have been products from our Technical schools supposed they were up in standards and shapes. Towards this end, I submit that we must encourage technically endowed citizens to take admission in technical schools, even if we have to resort to scholarships and other incentives, the long term objective of which is to blossom our country into greatness.
Conclusively, there should be concerted efforts towards a holistic review of our National Education policy. This factor is very germane in the sense that relevant stakeholders will parley to redesign our policy in such a way that each states or Local Governments will have their cherished values embellished into the school curriculum. For instance, each state indigenous language and cultural values will be given special attention in the new curriculum to be designed; however, this should not be sacrificed for national goals. God Bless Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Femi Oni is a PhD student of University of Lagos. He can be reached on 08065848504 or [email protected] | http://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/166882/1/towards-a-functional-education-curriculum.html | 2,905 | Education | 3 | en | 0.999973 |
Greetings, fellow manipulators and deceivers, and welcome to our course on how to create a fake pandemic! As you know from our previous courses, the first thing you need for an undertaking of this kind is to own some mainstream media. As experienced mass manipulators, we're sure you own a medium outlet or two, so let's get right into it!
Manufacturing a pandemic when there isn't any is much easier than you might think. As usual, we will need the right focus, repetition, some misdirection, semi-made-up numbers and your regular psychological tricks.
To start a fake pandemic, we need an appropriate virus. It should be something new that people know little to nothing about - that way you can tell them just about anything, and they'll know nothing to contradict your claims. Something with a scary or cool-sounding name is best. The media will love talking about it.
It can be helpful if this new virus is closely related to other viruses that are neither new nor rare.
That way you can throw these into the mix whenever you need to bloat the numbers. The world of viruses is amazingly diverse, yet the common people know nothing about it, so there's always enough to choose from. I mean,
most people can't tell apart a virus from a bacterium, or even a very small spider.Perhaps the most difficult part is the right timing. You can't make up a pandemic out of literally nothing - there has to be something going on. So you may have to wait to come upon the right thing, but you are already used to this. Once you identify the right situation, it's all about making the most of it.
Once you find the right virus that's spreading at a reasonably useful rate, it's time for propaganda!
Now you have to tell people about it every day with a very serious face, a sense of danger in your voice, and some well-selected and modified numbers.For those of you with the appropriate resources, there is a bonus idea you can use. You can manufacture the virus yourself, release it secretly to another country, let them discover it, and then blame them for starting the pandemic. This will make you look a lot better than if the virus started in your own country, and it can of course be used to demonize a country of your choice, if you set it up right.
Whichever way you get the virus going, now you need to focus on numbers.
People die from diseases every day, but the common population has no idea what the actual numbers are, and that's what we're counting on. And even if people hear a number, they don't know what to think of it unless you tell them. You can tell people that over half a million people die every year from the flu - which is true - but the average Joe doesn't know whether that's OK or a sign of a crisis. This he will read from your voice and your face.So you'll have an ordinary virus, spreading at an ordinary pace, killing an ordinary number of people, but you will tell people every day that this is extraordinary, unprecedented even, show them the number of new cases every day, acting like you've discovered an alien base under your Capital city, and repeat that this is going to get worse and might reach catastrophic proportions. This has happened many times before, and people always bought it. Sure, in the end it will turn out, as it has before, that the actual number of deaths was 1% of the predicted number,
but by that time you'll be distracting people with other made-up stories, so nobody will be paying attention.Once the virus spreads to many countries, which, in today's world, is unavoidable, you have to quickly identify the one where the situation is the worst, which will happen by means of various local factors, and focus on that one the most. You will report how bad it is there every day, and imply that very soon it's going to be that bad everywhere unless people do what you tell them.You have to convince people that this virus is worse than other viruses. They have to believe they have a higher chance to die than they had ever before. This is where you have a wide selection of handy tricks.Usually case fatality rate is calculated from the estimated infected population.
That's not what you will do with this one.
You will calculate it from only confirmed cases, which will give you a much higher death rate, perhaps ten to a hundred times higher. Then you inform people that the death rate for seasonal flu is only 0.1%, which is the rate calculated from the estimated number of total cases, but you'll act like these two death rates are comparable. The death rate for flu from confirmed cases is around 10%, but people must never hear of this number! You'll tell them it's only 0.1% and this new virus has a case fatality rate of whatever you can get out of the situation.
To get a higher death rate, there are two main kinds of tricks. 1. You have to bloat the number of the deceased. 2. You have to keep the number of infected relatively low. (But high enough for people to see that this thing is spreading fast and will reach their homes any minute.)The number of confirmed cases depends on testing and diagnosing people, so you have to think about how many people to test and whom. It's best to test the people who are the most likely to have the virus and to die from it. So test the most in areas with the already highest number of cases, which isn't even suspicious,
and test mainly old and sick people. Those are the ones who will be dying the most, of course. You do not test in places where you would get few positive results. Then the case fatality rate wouldn't be scary enough.
You also need the numbers of daily new cases to rise, at least for a while. So start testing slowly, and then increase the rate of testing. The rate of confirmed cases will rise along with the rise in testing, so it will look like the virus is spreading faster than it really is. If you test 500 people today and find 50 new cases, test 1000 tomorrow, and you'll likely find about 100 cases. This doesn't mean an increase in anything other than your testing, but people will easily be convinced that today twice as many people as yesterday got infected.You may be wondering, "But how do I bloat the number of the deceased? Aren't such records difficult to fake? Don't people keep track of that?" Not to worry!
Once you convince everyone that there's a crisis, you can give this virus a special status, and when people with cancer or pneumonia die with this virus, instead of cancer or pneumonia, which would normally be the official cause of death, you'll be able to write down the name of your new virus. Since everybody will be hearing about this virus 24/7, nobody will notice that this is very unusual. So now you'll have all these sick old people dying from things that would have killed them in a few weeks or months anyway, but you'll be able to attribute the deaths to your virus. This should boost the death rate significantly.Monitor closely everything that's happening, look for any peaks in the statistics, and focus on those. You have the whole world to choose from, so make sure you don't miss any serious cases.
Of course wherever things calm down, you start ignoring the place. Since old people will be dying all the time, you must look for the rare cases of younger people dying and magnify them as much as possible.Pay attention to discrepancies in the events in various countries. Some places will have higher death rates, usually for rather uninteresting reasons, but if you're creative, you can make up your own reasons for why it is so and gain further advantages out of the situation. We are sure you'll be able to find ways to demonize countries that need demonizing.
Once all of this is going on, you can usher in the police state of your dreams. Lock people in their homes, make them wear masks and keep a distance from each other (this will make it more difficult for them to talk about what's going on, and their main source of information will be your media), and if at all possible, make them snitch on one another. Widespread paranoia always helps. And of course, accuse those who complain of being inconsiderate and selfish etc. etc. You know the drill. Just like 9/11. Remember how we accused everyone who didn't fall in line of being unpatriotic? Worked like magic, didn't it? (Good days.)Now, your usual danger will be the few people who are somehow always immune to our bullshit and will investigate and inevitably discover at least part of the truth and do their best to publish it. This is nothing new to you.
Above all, you must keep any such voices out of the mainstream media. No statistics other than the ones you need, no comparing with other diseases (except for carefully selected ones that fit your narrative), no bringing context and perspective into this, none of the things these people always do. Bring some fake 'experts' in the media who will say whatever you tell them to, and so on.
Some scientists and doctors will try to publish papers that doubt the official narrative. These must be, as always, prevented from being published. Any incriminating content must be constantly removed from wherever possible. Our friends at Google and Facebook will help you with that.
You can also conduct some fake polls that show that the majority of the population supports the measures taken.Restrictions put on the population will of course greatly affect the economy, but corporations will ride it out, and small businesses will fold, giving corporations even more power, which is what we want, right?So that's about the basics of manufacturing a fake pandemic.
You can monitor something perfectly normal and create the crisis in people's heads. And with the mess you'll create, a real crisis or two is bound to appear somewhere, so make sure to use it well.
Also, while you'll be distracting everyone with this 'deadly' virus, you'll have the opportunity to pull off a few dirty tricks behind everyone's back, so don't miss it!
When it's over and people start saying that it wasn't nearly as bad as you told them it would, you will tell them, as you can probably guess now, that it's because of the measures you had taken. Then you'll just distract them with some other bullshit as usual.
All right, that's it. I hope you enjoyed our presentation and that this was helpful. I'll be looking forward to seeing a good fake crisis in the near future!
Thank you all for participating.
"Yeugghh. How could I have bought that suit????"
I think they have done a great job in their grand mind programming project in ponerizing the masses and beating them into submission. This can be very challenging, but best not to identify I think, and just watch the show. Anyone got any pop corn, I'm all out and so are the shops?
you might however have overlooked how thick and slow the general public might be; (if/when they decides to be thick/slow offcourse). 🤔
does not mean they are necessarily slow/thick i hope. hmm 🤓
in the end; "herd immunity" / not the end of the world.
I damn sure hope so.
Great minds and all that.
1. Try to do something about the things you can do something about.
2. Accept that there are things you can't do anything about, and don't worry yourself to death over them.
We all deal with people we love but who are clueless and don't listen. Tell them as much as they can handle, but not more. If you get too much resistance, you just have to let them believe what they want to believe. Pressure won't work.
Find creative ways to make people see the facts. Think about what the right questions to ask them are, that could wake up a few neurons in their brains. Don't expect much success, but you can try.
In this current situation, one of the most obvious and undisputed facts is that more people have died of the flu this year than with covid-19, despite the numbers for covid being bloated. So tell people that and see how they react. If there's even a glint of interest, you can tell them more, but if they shrug it off with no change in their attitude, then there's probably not much point in telling them anything more.
We are all here to learn, and we don't have the ability or even the right to force others to learn. They learn at their own pace, and we have to accept that. To keep your sanity, try to 'enjoy the show'.
Also, don't panic yourself, or you just make yourself part of the same equation.
If I was the captain of a ship about to go into a storm, and I heard one of my crew members say something along the lines of the "we're all going to die" crap, I've read in SOTT comments over the last few days, they could consider themselves lucky if they weren't fed to the fishes.
In my family of Mum, brother, sisters, & niblings*, only Mum, brother, & nephews #1 &2 are awakened. (IMHO, bro was somewhat late to the party of truth.
So that's a pool of 16 with 4 awake, and 12 cog. diss'd. (Including moi, would be 5 - I like to think - to 12.)
*Nephews & nieces.
How do other folks' families compare?
Not 'true' in the sense of something to hit on people and say - 'I told you so' - but the truth that shows you, you are free instead of the framing in story that works to replace truth with compulsive habit reaction.
The trouble with narrative identity is it is always some sort of reality adjustment. There is no peace in it.
From your peace you can relate to the lives of others even if they are invested in barking up the wrong tree.
You cant tell anyone what they are not willing or ready to hear. Or rather - they will not hear or will hear something else.
Look for where you can find shared willingness and open channels of communication that acknowledge the power to make choices - including poor choices. Because only this can make a better choice after re-evaluating its experience of results.
lastly but firstly - be who you are and let your simple presence become the context of what you say and do - and that others see and engage with because you are there - rather than masked over or so involved in past and future as to miss what is here - now.
Mind structures can take us out of Life and into the sense of controling life - or the imperitive to do so - as if anything we do doesn't also have unintended or adverse consequence that can be worse than the original condition - and more concealed - such as death by medical treatment - which in UK/US and no doubt other developed nations is AT LEAST the third leading 'cause' of death and is the system that has the evident ability to choke the global economy.
I find self asking, "How/when did I miss this?" Excellent suggestions!
Sheeple are led to the slaughter.
See, e.g., HFL's first point and follow up.
And how do you bloat your cases even more? Why, you make test kits for corona virus that are contaminated with...corona virus:
If they don't actually catch it from the kit itself (and then also spread it to even MORE people), they will still register as positive cases! Genius!
But regardless, the stats say it all:
TOTAL RTA Hospitalisations: 74,680 in 2019.
Gardening Hospitalisations: 87,000: 6,500 were hurt by a lawn mower flowerpots caused 5,300 and hedge-trimmers caused 3,100 hospitalisations.
And that's just gardening... DIY is another category as will be people exercising with bricks and watering cans of water suspended from garden rakes because they can't go to a gym. People running for the first time and twisting ankles, people cycling for the first time and head-butting trees,... I am told it's already happening.
Lego bricks hammered up nostrils by bored kids: 7,568
Yes, I think I'm safer on a bike. But the fascists just love their lockdowns, and their army of home guard hitlers love it too.
"TV might be linked to earlier deaths among those who watch more than a few hours a day, but more concretely, the devices themselves kill 176 people a year. Literally. They fall on people."
My brother's suggestion: "Officer, I was just en route to buy an enema kit at the pharmacy", or anything else they'd prefer to avoid the details of. (Also, make some phone calls - on someone else's phone* and find the package at a 'drug'* in a town you wish to take a road trip to.) When you get there, realize you forgot your credit card.
*Of course, there's no guarantee that we're not all real time tracked via voice id but they're unlikely to let that secret out to prosecute anything. (Here, they even drop murder prosecutions rather than reveal their precious, 'secret' stingray and similar surveillance that's been going on.)
** Pretending I'm a Brit. (Drug store.) ( I don't know if RTA is UK, Canada, or where. Here, they're called MVA's or MVC's,)
Yes you CAN go shopping... most use cars so need a rucksack to blag it as no panniers, .. I'd maybe pick up a few beers and some snacks to make it worthwhile wearing the damn thing. Normally have a ride out with mates so we'd have to ride at a distance, etc. As I say, you're more likely to end up in hospital having a gardening or auto erotic accident involving a hose pipe and a hamster.
" rucksack to blag it as no panniers," Say wha???
'backpack to carry is as ... otherwise, no luck???" I.e., NO CLUE!
lol I loved that!
Very fetching, wot.
As in, throwing a chicken wing off the balcony and saying to cat lady: "Fetch!" ?
The mask she was sporting looked a bit like half of one of those black push-up "Maria" bras.
I'm wondering when they're gonna come with ball-gags attached to prevent people from stating the obvious.
*Some SOB Team FUKUSraHell type.
Surprisingly his death wasn't registered as "death by coronavirus".
Ain't no sunshine.
S'funny, in UK (southern) I notice; although the negative-charged atmosphere is foreboding, the Daffodils are striking this year and looking brighter than usual and flourishing thickly. Its quite contrasting. Also, there seems to be a lot of ravens and crows around and about, in the streets, making a racket. Rats are a bit more openly roaming, though not too noticeable... Yet. So far the streets are still kept relatively clean and bins collected. We shall see what tidings this month brings.
So, a lot going on, ay, whats coming next, I wonder? The CorpGov aided by the Military Complex might be taking over the reigns of food production some point in the year, perhaps. Hope them ye-olde school farmers are ready! They gonna hav'ta to master those diplomacy skills when CorpGov want them to comply with things they don't. Though probably not quite yet, more for next year with the next flu-season lock down, but could be sooner... Probably will.
Guess this is the New World Reality now. But... however hard our soon-to-be very-overt One World Government might try - and they will succeed for a while - it won't last. And that's coming from me, a pessimist! Though it indeed gets darkest before the break of dawn brightens - so... darker it will get, yet.
Don't forget to keep an eye out for cosmic happenings up in the sky, folks; comet clusters approaching, our 'Dark Twin' sun on the approach in far out elliptical orbit... coming back in through the Oort cloud, right? Heh.. Lets see what that brings!
"Come friendly Comets rain down on Earth!..."
As many here know: Things up there have a profound effect on things down here; electromagnetics, gravity wells and pulls tugging at the quantum strings, maunder-minimums, Earth-changes etc. That's what this is mainly about... The occultic side to our 'Shadow Government'; THE Government, the unseen government residing over and above that which is visually presented to us on a nation by nation basis, for they follow ancient occult laws tying strongly into the cosmic undercurrents, the astronomic ripplings and inter-galactic alignments, and the intensifying subatomic weaves and waves and wot-not, threading its way throughout the Universe... and the unseen Dark Ones have always understood this, and its effects on humanity. They know this and want to close us off for whats coming.
But they also need us to give our minds to them at some spiritual level... consciously or subconsciously, it doesn't matter too much for it still constitutes "choice". Choice is everything behind … EVERYTHING, when its broken down. For here, we must "choose" to give ourselves over to 'them', both as individuals and as a human species en-masse, collectively. First, the individual basis, is to coax (mostly through our shiny screens) us into choosing to be part of the herd in comfort so we are tied into humanity en-masse as a group species - 'joint and severally liable' like a signed Contract. This is why its so important to keep growing our consciousness as individuals, and continually increase our awareness, so we stay above it on a individual souled basis. The less we do this, the more the collective human consciousness goes under with herd mentality and develops the "hive-mind". The hive-mind is not immune to nefarious external forces because of its low vibratory-resonance state. Only if the individuals making up the collective are developing their minds individually do steer back round the collective-mind "upward" to healthy collectiveness in mutual respect and cooperation, would it then form a robust human mass-consciousness facing Light, in unison, and the Dark Ones lose their power. This is what they know.
If we do not do this, then the collective becomes a hive-mind and steers individuals - even those not wanting any part of it - "downward" back into bondage, dragging all humanity down. This is where we at now, at another historic cross-roads, another significant step for collective humanity... further "choosing" slavery... AGAIN!
We all know this here. But its good to have it reminded.
Just keep your souls free, peeps - even if the flesh is not - and we will get through this!
As already stated; this dastardly plot will not last forever. For collective consciousness steers cosmic events to us like a super-magnet, for better or worse, in this case WORSE, as it brings cataclysm to us. It will be a painful 'cleansing' if you will.... devastating to most... but its necessary, and joy will follow (apparently). Its all Cyclical, been going for aeons.
First little teaser sign in the skies coming up! Comet Atlas:
But what about the period leading up? Can we hold out until "joy" arrives? And what about our loved ones? Is there anything to help them? Hm...
The mandatory vaccines (no, not Mandatory's vaccines!) forced upon us will further seal our spirit in flesh, or at least it'll attempt to considerably, and to try to cut off and isolate those insolent souls amongst us rebelling against bondage once and for all, to better deal with.
The vaccines will make us weak in mind and body and puny in heart and soul. Coupled together with recent happenings going on at the macrocosm scale, is synchronised with projects like 5G and the triple-layered SpaceX orbital-satellite frequency-net... or 'shells'... cloaking all of Earth... there will be no getting away no matter how high the mountain or deep the forest we run to... It is an all out affront against ALL humanity, an attempt in the making to imprison ALL the divine sparks of Humanity, ensnared. It is to us the effect of being shut off from the Cosmos...to be wholly encased, planetwide, living within a giant Qlippoth shell. The Kabbalah is a 4D STS manual to our spiritual enslavement btw.
Our psychopath leaders who are Gog, will send forth their ranks and file making up the hordes and masses making up all the lesser-souled who are always far more numerous in number - and alas, many its number may well be members of our household, unwittingly sold unto themselves - becometh Magog; rising from the east do they, as do all men each day rise with the passage of night and day traversing our sky.
We will likely be forced to face a pivotal choice: Rebel. Or find a more 'meditative' way round it.
For those of you out there who would quite understandably rather opt for the latter - especially if you have children or any other dependents who come to rely on you - then there are other ways to mitigate such circumstances. Here is a very promising list of things to implement when the time comes, courtesy of "in-house" medical expertise (I've slightly 'edited' list to arrange to fit - hope SOTT editors don't mind): However, if, like me, you are one of the more fortunate ones to not have dependables counting on you (at least not immediately or direct dependable), and are a stoical unyielding type rightly incensed on the grounds through principle alone - the audacity of vastly inferior soul-stock given the unconstitutional authority to even dare think they have the right to forcibly tamper with our bodies?!... Well, I say; when that time comes when our Gog overlords send their black-holed Magog servants - or any their proxies of abomination born of the accursed Jehovahn heresy - do come knocking on your door uttering their blasphemies of forced vaccination and microchipping to comply (lest we be perpetual "prisoners of war" ankle-tagged never to leave the house) then in noble indignation, and on behalf of those who cannot or have not the courage, head out and face head-on in your final reckoning the checking-out of this inferior 3D world under the muzzle-flair of a Hecklar and Koch - with your teeth at a minion's throat! Then that's okay too.
Those bringing violence to our doors uninvited must themselves learn that violence breeds violence, and this is something some of us born for this moment must teach to them. We are probably doing them a favour afflicting upon them returned violence in kind, because what free-will violation they impose on you, if it is not paid off through prospective lessons because they are unable to be learned in this current incarnation of theirs, then they will most likely have it carried over in the form of karmic payback to their next life - but with added interest.
Its ironic really... After much inner turmoil's of late, almost losing myself to the abyss, I feel strangely at peace with myself now in these times of insanity. I feel soon to have a legitimate reason to "take up my sword"... My Crocea Mors. Its set in me a certain... feeling of quiet content.
Should my cup come to pass, and should I muster up all the courage I hope is lain dormant within me to make that most final of final commitments... my fate sealed... is, in all honestly, to hope my violent demise should wake my family out from their trepid stupor - for dangerously are they, sleep-walking into the feckless oblivion which abounds all round - and from my death is to visit duly on them those much-needed 'shocks' so received, 'shocks' of which Gurdjieff speaks of. And, from that, might spare my family from becoming relegated to the "soul-smashed" slag-heap of primal matter.
In the UK right now things are... poised. There is pause... to reflect... "Selah" as the Jews might say. But we know its the calm before the next storm brewing... Another ramping up of the next leg-up toward "Planet Draconia".
I pray... if, when , "the knock" at the door comes a knockin' - or should they just break it down - I pray I check-out of this world in a magnificent display of valour of bloody reprisal the likes of which they have never before seen, for they would not be standing there if they had -- leaving their chambers hot and magazine clips empty before my last moments finally pass!
Anyway… On a more positive note - Birmingham UK just the other day:
Good Luck Everybody!
Whichever way you choose to meet the unstoppable darkness which lie before all our paths; may it be done out of Love, in Faith and with Great Courage!
(Just call me Anna24.)
SpaceX loses third Starship prototype in cryogenic ground test
A prototype for SpaceX's Starship space vehicle collapsed during pressure testing early Friday at the company's facility in South Texas — the program's third failure during such testing since...If they come to vaccinate or microchip me, I have similar thoughts to yours. Living like a slave is not my thing.
So if things go south, I guess I'll meet you in Valhalla.
Haven't seen you round these parts very much lately, hope you are well?
I don't have the finances to make a movie, unfortunately. Not even a really low-budget one, like those really bad 1980's sci-fis clumsily mixing in fading 1970's 'porn stars' cavorting their retro-latex antics to appeal to wider audiences. And even if I did have money, I wouldn't know how or where to start. Besides, I think I'd make it too difficult for myself - and for those working with me. I'm a bit of a stickler and would probably get lost in silly set-pieces that don't matter. I mean; should there be Hobbits, or Ewoks for example? I don't know...
Vaccines... Chippin'... Yeah, the phrase "OVER MY DEAD BODY!!!" couldn't ring in my ears loud enough long enough.
I look forward to meeting you in Valhalla. And until then... Keep up your fine works
P.s. I'm not a big guy, nor am I a small guy. Just right
I have a feeling I've neglected to answered some pertinent questions when we last left off way back when. I can't find any right now, but do let me know if that is the case. I have more time on my hands now (for obvious reasons, Lol)
I hope you and your family are keeping safe and well in these uncertain times? And try to maximise your 'once-a-daily' this glorious sunshine this afternoon!
I think the last thread was back last summer sometime although I cannot remember the article. The subject was non existence and non being.
If remember correctly, you were perplexed by ''there is no no being, but there is non existence. I left a comment that what if there are not necessarily the same thing. That is the last time we exchanged comments. Hope you have some new ideas on this?
Yes, my family and I are fine thanks.
This little catch-up has been nice. G'night Graeme.
Pretty clear that the COVID-19 crisis has been engineered by Bill Gates from seasonal flu in order to crash the global economy, normalise authoritarianism, and further the elites' goal of one world government.
Gates paw prints are all over this psyop. He owns the WHO of course, and heavily funds medical research institutions such as in Berlin which produced the first test protocol, fast-tracked by the WHO, and the Institut Pasteur.
The lockdown has meant many millions out of work, institution of regimes which have been compared to those of a police state, in the UK and in New Zealand, and calls by Gates, Blair and Brown. Gates is also calling for compulsory vaccination, and digital id, ie microchipping.
And it is very hard to organise protest if you cannot gather together or even leaflet.
COVID-19: Bill Gates Engineers a Global Crisis from Seasonal Flu [Link]
"tie the shoe laces . . .but not to each other."
And other two videos that were showing EXACTLY how electrification of Earth is done since Spanish Flu are now deleted from Instagram and Youtube thanks to factcheckers. Welcome to the Brand New World
One could make a similar article with how to manufacture a global warming crisis. There are so many similarities. This corona circus even has its own hockey stick, which worked so well for the climate circus. The same players involved, massive media push, fake experts, talking about CO2 of which most people know nothing, use of children when necessary, shaming the elderly if necessary, the need to abandon democracy as it is an emergency to save the world etc.
The manipulative tricks of the trade are the same and when one thing doesn't work, like the climate circus which people started to catch on to, then another cause celebre takes over which follows the same agenda.
Media manipulation: CBS News posts fraudulent video of ICU nurse crying over poor working conditions
CBS News posted a video of a nurse who claimed she quit her job after being asked to work in a coronavirus ICU without a face mask. "America is not prepared, and nurses are not being protected,"...I don't know who to call, The Stasi or The Gestapo?
still no lock-down. but the debate is intensifying.
i owe you a few beers
Michael Gove said the conspiracy theory that links 5G technology to the spread of coronavirus is ‘dangerous nonsense’
T he minister doth protest too much, methinks
I missed it.
Ignore those old conspiracy nuts who think that new, untested things should be considered potentially dangerous until proven safe.
*For those who may not know, 'conspiracy theorist' is a derogative term for people who do a lot of research (unlike their opponents), know incredible amounts of little known facts (unlike their opponents), and have very poor opinion on mainstream media, including Facebook.
To think we use to laugh out how Americans got suckered by Orson Welles' War of the World broadcast - can anyone tell me the difference between them and us now
I'd be more than happy to have permanent gestapo 'distancing rules, for life!
Also, the more they interfere with people in the everyday, the more "faculty X" virus goes around. LOL.
"Sunbathing is a revolutionary act".
Sorry to say that, but as I suspected, this is a real serious virus and not "just flu" or dodgy stats. This is from my wife who has just returned there today after sick leave, and returned home completely traumatised and not wanting to go back.
real people are definitely dying. (most are probably old though. would be dying sooner or later anyhow).
hmm, mum is 85y, still fit as a fiddle.
This helped me thru thick.
In Germany... the french had crossed over... the mom's warned their girls
.... VISITEZ MA TENTE?
my mom went to spain on a group/health tour a few weeks ago. picked up a really bad cold down there. after their return, it turned out four in the group tested positive on the corona-virus and one of her friends died after a few days. (don't know how it went with the others). mom tested negative and recovered, (after passing her cold on to me and the rest of the family).
at work, 4 has tested positive/recovered by themselves, and 400 was quarantined/probably not tested.
what i am really wondering about is the ratio of persons infected with mild/no symptoms vs severe cases. in my head that would be a main parameter for evaluating the need for restrictions.
I don't know about true mortality rate, nobody does as it's a function of test rate. The only important stat is inter-day hopsitalisation rate vs capacity.
I know guys on here are all having a laugh about this. It's the 911 conspiracy lens you can't see without. People get used to being lied to. But if it looks like a turd and smells like a turd... maybe it's a turd - not a plastic hoax turd sprayed with turd fragrance.
Yes, 911 got me to question most things, but it's one thing to browse the internet looking for confirmation bias like David Icke, and another to see it for real. Listen to Icke's latest interview on London Real,.. he's completely lost the plot now. A foaming at the mouth lunatic. Fact is nobody here knows anything beyond speculation. But what a great way to get rid of troublesome dissenters, release something real that nobody believes in. Because they know everyone is a conspiracy theorist now. All the good servile people who put their masks on get to survive. It's like the zen student who gets trampled by the elephant because his master said all was illusion.
I would provide further updates, but looking at the comments this is obviously no longer the place for that.
How does a mask help prevent illness if one believes the illness is a transmitted virus ... unless there is a conspiracy to kill off people whilst pretending it is a virus
Hmmm ...(other subject) prince phil still around do you think?
Thanks in advance
It was a comment re COVID, a name created by some think tank, consisting of all roman numerals (accepting 0)
So not only is there the usual gematria to look at, the values of the roman numeral can also be used
100, 0, 5, 1, 500 = 606 or 616 if you add -19
"...but it's one thing to browse the internet looking for confirmation bias like David Icke, and another to see it for real. Listen to Icke's latest interview on London Real,.. he's completely lost the plot now. A foaming at the mouth lunatic..."
I suspect a very small percentage have listened to David Icke - we're far more likely to be listening to people like Dr Andrew Kaufman or David Parker. Why resort to the extremes of people like Icke unless the more moderate counter-arguments are viewed as a threat to the narrative
Thanks much though for offering your input re 'the Roman VI'. I was very curious when Hash wrote it first and always so fascinated by your insights re numbers and names.
Its missing one O but the spiel is the same. To make those who are caught in little details MORE CONFUSED. The big picture is the only that matters!
BTW. Saying thank you is MUCHO important if you value your progress in releasing Karmic debt and cleaning your spiritual world.
I frankly feel this is about semantics. HW's point from which this all flowed, was simply another expression of the logic of economics in purchasing or selling anything, long ago simply expresses as. "Buy low, sell high."
Before one attaches malevolence to such decisions, one must first, Christlike, declaim, "I will never attempt to buy low, nor sell high again. If presented with identical* items to purchase, I will never attempt to buy the lowest price one - the subject here - nor the highest (might as well just literally burn the money and buy nothing) - but promise to always just do some perfectly random choice."
Beyond that, we're just getting into trying to compare macroeconomics to one's personal microeconomics and how one exercises one's free choice in using one's purchases with some hopeful or theoretical change in macroeconomics.**
* In economics called 'fungible'.
P.s., One could inquire into the tiny irrelevancies of where whoever went off the subject (the far most common tact is the use of ad hominems, - e.g., "Get angry much?" - but I ain't going there until each pay me $100 for every subsequent RC post on this.***
** Last sentence could be re written. Must get paid the big $, as per * above, before I fix. There's that self interest again!
*** See? There I go expressing economic self interested. Nothing wrong with that. It's directly associated with logical behavior and the best system of govenment, libertarianism, wherein the system trusts people to look after their own interests as they always know it better than others, and contra the absurdities of Marxism, where the system presumes that folks will care for others they don't know before they care for themselves and those they care for more.
P.s.,, Just made that up.
the rest of the part were sitting on a pub next by, watching. what came as a surprise to me back then was that poorly looking people was consistently giving him a few coins, while people in nice suits went straight by - or even threw out insults.
well. an insignificant story offfcourse. but unfortunately; a story which i have seen repeted itself too many times, when it was not about bacheleors to be married.
Brakar That doesn't surprise me. I once spent a couple of days in Sydney, trying to raise money on behalf of a major charity, that I believed in at the time.
I received twice as much from people in the poorer districts than in the very affluent areas inhabited by the nouveau riche who often rudely refused.
Whether that is actually true for this time, it is likely to be the cause at some point in the future
The crux of the issue is whether cowering away in isolation 9 months of every year is the best solution - I suspect the reaction has more to do with fulfilling agendas that addressing the problem - corporations are already advertising "the new normal"
My music teachings, omly here at Sott
I've found this guy's work rather convincing to people who'd rather not do the simple math themselves. Although there are several assumptions he makes which I believe to be false (i.e. the initial climb, at least in the USA has little to do with infection, rather than the number of tests slowly doled out in an already massively infected society with few casualties.)
Peerless Reads by Andrew Mather on YouTube until they yank it. His more recent slides are filled with simple graphs, math, and data anyone can access.
This goes to the moral obligation of competent folks in a free society to become informed about relevant facts and then make reasonable judgments about those facts, and let that control their interactions with others, including their government(s). (See comments of Founding Fathers.)
AmeriKans wrongfully/(immorally) abdicated that responsibility.
The numbers are in plain sight and tell the story pretty clearly, but people think the numbers mean what the media tell them they mean, rather than what they really mean. The numbers clearly say this is no big deal, just like the flu. Even the bloated numbers say that. But media tell people the numbers are really high, and people believe that as if they can't see the numbers are nothing out of the ordinary.
So people are looking at numbers that are in the thousands but acting like they're in the millions.
But we know and can learn a lot more than that - we know the media pushes a narrative, they are narrating someone else's agenda
We should be able to tell the difference between news and narration
... then there's the things we learn, PNAC's desire for a new Pearl habour, the Patriot act drawn up and passed in days (written months before), the ambitious plan to invade 7 countries, all set and ready to go, and, of course, the whole Bin Laden fairy tale
So yes, we only know what they "show" us ... 24/7 bombardment of a single narrative, bill Gates' Event 201, Rockefeller's 2010 Lock Step plan, instant identification of the baddie (infected Bat or Asteroid), agendas coming to the fore, such as cash free society etc.
GREAT & HILARIOUS SUMMARY OF 'Conspiracy Nuts' (sic) vis a vis 'Masses' of (close-minded) Asses, or 'Sheeple'.
* I thank who first posted it here, but forget who they were.
I found a pinterest, which I hate, and which seems to cut the captions out. (I've not signed in to see it.)[Link]
20 years ago, they would have laughed and said "We need to change 'Trevor' to RC" Hee hee.
The nature of denial.
While the commoners are busy worrying about what mask to buy, and how to survive without toilet paper; we are busy buying the very arse you sit on. We are nationalizing it all! What does that mean you ask? It means your children' children's children's children are OURS.. It means that you will not get out from under our grip, even in death. It means that you will work, or you will work, or you will work, work. Until-we unroll a universal wage, and then you will do just as we say, you will live where we say, you will buy what we tell you,we already watch you 24/7, but we will dictate your every thought, in fact, we will be in charge of your minds from this point on. Oh wait, some of you have already given yours to us. Some of you were the 'experiments', some of you breathed it in you while you slept, or while you walked your doggy at the park. It went in through your eyes, or it went up your nose. Maybe it went up your ----.
YOU ARE OURS. WE OWN YOU. YOU WILL NOT STOP US. YOU are TOO SCARED, YOU HAVE NO _____. YOU DON'T DARE START WITH US. OH, you thought you could. We saw you, you, resisters. We saw you around the world beginning to rise up. We saw it. We talked about how to stop you from creating a world wide revolution. AND now look at you! You are divided! haha, and not just divided, but you are isolated into very very small groups, and you have no longer a voice, you are mice, no wait, you are fleas. YOU can do nothing but sit in your house on your devices, and become more and more isolated as we notch it up incrementally, until you are completely broken and begging for us to let you out.. boo hoo. YOU don't even see what is right there in front of you, because you don't have the ability to THINK. You were born into the construct. You think it is normal. You miss it, and we laugh at you. You missed the "test". You missed the mistake that we made, and we laughed at you-because you didn't catch it, and you didn't really question it. Well, most of you didn't. Some of you were getting close. Some of you blew a whistle, but we took care of that. We buried the stories. Or we simply just put out a cover story. You didn't see the mistake. You failed the "TESTS". You didn't see what was right there all the time. It was there all the time. Now, if you don't mind, we will continue with buying the world, OUR WORLD, the World that is all ONE. AND WE OWN IT. Excuse me, I have to push a button to buy this channel. ta ta.
NEW NAME: Covid1984 Just read at [Link]
Ovid's full name is Publius Ovidius Naso ... could be green language inferring the public sheep and the nose
Dates around Ovid are sketchy but we can be "certain" that he was born on 20 March 43 BC (Chinese lock down started 23/01 and UK lock down started 23/03 - close but no cigar)
I found this odd though: So he rose to and resigned from those three positions all by the time he was between 14 and 18?
Dont feel bad...I lived in Chicago the entire time he was coming up there and never saw him...
Rudolf Steiner said Ahriman (Satan) is gonna incarnate as a human being in the 21c. (exactly 2030) and will prepare the ground with lies, fears, transhumanism, occult materialism. And Luzifer will blind drag people into false spirituality the fake astral light (new age).
I've not finished that article, etc., but I'll be surprised if they allowed any legitimate comparative statistical/epidemiological questions happen.
Dr. Birx: We have 'very liberal' recording of COVID deaths; if they test positive, 'we are counting that'
During Tuesday's White House press briefing, coronavirus task force leader Dr. Deborah Birx explained that COVID-19 deaths in the United States have "very liberal" recording guidance, noting that...Once the public wakes up from the hypnosis (because sooner or later, the media have to start talking about other things), they might notice this is total fraud.
And 4 are the numbers of the horsemen of the apocalypse!!!
The First Seal: "I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. "
Corona is Latin for crown. The coronavirus is the first horseman. It is the end times!!
Heck that was off the cuff in one minute flat, I could spout this garbage out all day. | https://www.sott.net/article/431860-How-to-Create-a-Fake-Pandemic | 10,652 | Health | 2 | en | 1 |
By Francis Ewherido
I am not sure which word I became conscious of first, but I suspect “Afghanistan” as a country. In my secondary school days, I studied geography at a point and also followed international affairs. I probably became conscious of “Afghanistanism” (“the practice, as by a journalist, of concentrating on problems in distant parts of the world while ignoring controversial local issues”) in the university.
But Afghanistan, as used in today’s article, is a metaphor for a person who was offered all the assistance to stand on his feet and live, independent of the helper, but simply refused to take responsibility and went back to square one. The story of Afghanistan is out there and need not be laboured here. On September 11, 2001, the unthinkable happened. Al Qaeda invaded and wreaked havoc on American soil. On 9/11 2015, 14 years later, I was at the new twin towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York. For someone, who had no previous attachments to those iconic buildings or New York, I could not help but still be emotional.
America descended on Afghanistan to rout out Al Qaeda. But it knew that would not be enough. As of April, the U.S. had spent $2.261 trillion on the war in Afghanistan, according to the Costs of War project housed at Brown University’s Watson Institute and Boston University’s Pardee Center. Part of this money was spent on putting a government in place, organizing and equipping the military and police, and putting other systems and processes in place to enable the Afghan government stand on its feet.
The support went on for almost 20 years, enough time for responsible people to sort out themselves. But with a typical third world mindset, they quickly forgot where they were coming from and the task before them. Instead of building enduring institutions, systems and processes, they were embroiled in ethnicity, corruption and opulent living (did you see the presidential palace after the Taliban gained access). The leaders went about living as if America and other donors will sustain them forever. Who does that? Even manna had a terminal date and once the people of Israel were in a position to provide for themselves, it stopped.
Individuals also make the mistakes of the Afghan Nation. A man had the good fortune of a relative who could buy him a car when he decided to go into cab business. Once the cab was bought and registered for him, his plans changed. He employed a driver and started using the car both for commercial and private use.
Soon, he married another wife. Before long, the vehicle had a major fault. He sent a message to his relative for money to fix the vehicle. The relative bought the car for him while he was in his 50s and active. He is now in his 60s and retired; no time and resources to accommodate such foolish behaviour anymore. When you get a life-time opportunity, maximize it. Keep Afghanistanish behaviour at bay.
ALSO READ: Some core lessons from Afghanistan
When you get support from people, sometimes you have no idea how the people are able to offer the support. Some support out of their abundance, some deny themselves to support you and some are able to offer substantial support once in a while because of an occasional windfall. Thereafter, they are basically back to square one. So, do not trifle with people’s support. Long ago, a relative wanted to start a business.
The start-up cost was much and beyond what I could single-handedly shoulder. I got other family members to make their contributions and handed over both cash and materials to him. He set up shop. Rather than settle down and run the business, he left it for others to run. I have been around long enough to know the inevitable outcome. I cautioned him on a few occasions, but he continued shirking his responsibility of running his business. Then one day, I started receiving frantic calls from him.
What is the problem? He needed money to buy raw materials to produce. I smiled. So, what happened to proceeds of what he was producing? When I took time to go through his operations, what he needed was not just money to buy materials, but major cash injection. All the people, who supported him initially did it on a one-off basis. I could not go back to them. I offered the little assistance I could, but the business died.
The other bit I want to talk about is the question I asked before I went about his fundraising. I asked him his knowledge of the business he wanted to go into. He did have knowledge of the production bit of the business because he had worked in an organization where he was in the production department, but he had no knowledge of the management of the business.
Both skills are essential to the success of any business. At the heart of the successes of the Igbo enterprise in Nigeria is apprenticeship. It is during their apprenticeship that both skills are honed. I cannot seem to place my finger on any bigger magic wand for business success in Nigeria than the Igbo apprenticeship system. You might have issues with some parts of the process, but it is tested, it is enduring and it works.
Raising capital for business is tough, so you really want to get yourself ready in terms of technical and managerial skills before you start off, especially in a global, fast moving business terrain and our peculiar business terrain. Not all of us are Igbos, so we all might not be privileged to benefit from this apprenticeship. In fact, it is even an informal sector arrangement and mainly Igbos in the informal sector go through it.
But the fact remains that before you embark on an entrepreneurial journey, give yourself a fighting chance by having a hands-on knowledge of the sector you are going into. Then be disciplined and focus on the task. Too many people who got an initial window of opportunity are stranded today because of lack of knowledge and focus. And they continue to blame uncles, relatives and others who would not be there for them. My friend, take responsibility so that when another opportunity comes, you may have a better chance of success.
Proposed Okugbe MFB crosses the threshood
I had something very uplifting to smile about last weekend. Sometime ago, I was part of a team the Urhobo Nation saddled with the responsibility of raising N300m to set up a microfinance bank to serve the interest of woman and youths.
Ordinarily, there are a number of Urhobo men and women who can singlehandedly bring out that money, but things do not always work that way and everybody’s business can easily become no man’s business. Anyway, to the glory of God, we have raised the initial N200m the Central Bank requires and the Okugbe train is rolling. God bless all the Urhobo patriots who answered the call.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/fg-inaugurates-91-housing-units-enugu/amp/Keeping | 1,454 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999994 |
UnHeard: Professor Johan Giesecke, one of the worldâs most senior epidemiologists, advisor to the Swedish Government (he hired Anders Tegnell who is currently directing Swedish strategy), the first Chief Scientist of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and an advisor to the director general of the WHO, lays out with typically Swedish bluntness why he thinks:
UK policy on lockdown and other European countries are not evidence-based.
The correct policy is to protect the old and the frail only.
This will eventually lead to herd immunity as a âby-product."
The initial UK response, before the â180 degree U-turnâ, was better.
The Imperial College paper was ânot very goodâ and he has never seen an unpublished paper have so much policy impact.
The paper was very much too pessimistic.
Any such models are a dubious basis for public policy anyway.
The flattening of the curve is due to the most vulnerable dying first as much as the lockdown.
The results will eventually be similar for all countries.
Covid-19 is a âmild diseaseâ and similar to the flu, and it was the novelty of the disease that scared people.
The actual fatality rate of Covid-19 is the region of 0.1%.
At least 50% of the population of both the UK and Sweden will be shown to have already had the disease when mass antibody testing becomes available.
Read more at UnHerd. | https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/04/18/swedish_epidemiologist_johan_giesecke_why_lockdowns_are_the_wrong_policy.html | 312 | Health | 2 | en | 0.999964 |
Failed state†is a term popularised by Bill Clinton following the coinage in 1993 in an essay in Foreign Policy by two American political scientists to describe countries whose governments do not enjoy legitimacy or control over all their territories, and do not provide the people with security, and do not fulfil primary obligations to the people and the international community; in fact, foreign governments and institutions distance themselves from such regimes as much as possible. Somalia, Taliban’s Afghanistan and Laurent Gbabo’s Cote d’Ivoire are excellent examples. As already adumbrated, the term is used mostly in international relations to refer to countries, rather than their component parts. But in his broadcast on 27 August 2006, to mark the 14th anniversary of Anambra State, Governor Peter Obi curiously called Anambra “a failed stateâ€.
Anambra still pays a heavy price for this mindset. I took a group of Indian businessmen to the state five years ago to build a factory, and introduced them to the governor at a party which he organised for Dora Akunyili when the NAFDAC chief executive received an honourable mention in Time magazine for her war against drug fakers. The governor displayed a great interest, which was quite encouraging. But when he made the broadcast and they picked it up from the Internet, the businessmen began to look elsewhere. Their factory has since gone into production at Agbara, Ogun State.
How has Anambra fared on Obi’s watch? As you are reading this article, no state government-owned health facility has opened in the last eight months because doctors, pharmacists, nurses, laboratory scientists and other health workers have been on strike over pay. My own people in Ihiala Local Government Area are a bit lucky; they go daily to health centres and hospitals in neighbouring Imo State for immunisation and general medicare. For four months until the second week of July, 2011, no courts in Anambra State sat. Why? The workers were on strike over pay. Anambra enjoys the distinction of being the only state in the whole federation where the people, including those in Government House, have not enjoyed pipe-borne water for at least five years. Employees of the state water corporation have not received salaries in at least as many years. My own uncle, Pius Nwabugwu, a 1973 geology graduate of the University of Ibadan who voluntarily left the services of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to work for his home state, died last year without salary, gratuity or pension.
The situation in my home state tries men’s souls, to paraphrase the Great Zik of Africa. The situation challenges the conscience of the media, civil society and all those who can say no to sacrilege. A couple of weeks ago when I wrote a well circulated article calling attention to the abysmal state of roads in Ihiala, the fourth largest town in the state, and complained of the unjustifiable relocation of the state’s university from a place which represents Africa’s technological ingenuity as demonstrated the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-70, the state government went into a frenzy of puerile denial, name calling and braggadocio, leading critics to conclude that it may be afflicted by schizophrenic paranoia. It is instructive that the most important qualification for recruitment into the Government House media team is an enthusiasm to play a rabies-infested Rottweiler, Chinua Achebe’s “rabid beast of fanaticism†and “dangerous lunaticâ€.
In reaction to my brief essay in question, countless articles, frenetically written, were sent to the print media and the Internet under all manner of names. The state radio and television were mobilised to attack my person. As though to add a comic touch, Aloy Egwuatu, an otherwise fantastic gentleman who was two years ago given the sinecure position of Commissioner for Science and Technology after the people of Ihiala, the largest local government area in the state, complained bitterly that not even a personal assistant or part time director of a government agency came from their place, went on air to announce that my towns people had dissociated themselves from the publication. Interestingly, the commissioner cannot, in this rainy season, move in his official Peugeot 406 car from his house to mine, a distance of five kilometres, because of the embarrassing roads. Nor can he drive to the residence of the Ihiala Progress Union or the palace of our traditional ruler on account of the state of the roads.
A little comparison here may be telling enough. I wrote two articles in 2007 in the national media calling attention of the Bola Tinubu government in Lagos State to the absence of basic infrastructure in most parts of the Lekki Peninsula. On the day landlords in the area were meeting Tinubu over the state of roads in the Ajah part of the peninsula, Reuben Abati, then the chairman of The Guardian editorial board, coincidentally published a third article of mine on this lack of infrastructure entitled “Ajah—Badore Road: Open Sore of A Stateâ€. Tinubu had gifted propaganda storm troopers led by Information Commissioner, Dele Alake, but he did not ask them to turn the heat on me or to remind me that I am not a Lagos indigene. He rather asked PW, the competent Irish construction firm, to reconstruct and expand the road for a whopping N2.8 billion. As Babatunde Fashola was preparing to take over from Tinubu as governor, I ran into him at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, and complained about the poor state of the road leading to my estate. Fashola dispatched a team of engineers and surveyors to my house within days. I now have a first class road, complete with excellent drains. Hence, Unity Estate residents did not feel the devastation of the 7 July 2011 rainfall like the rest of the peninsula.
Can anyone imagine how the Obi government would react to a Yoruba resident in Anambra State audacious enough to criticise the government for not extending considerable infrastructure to his place? Obi made all his fortune in Yorubaland, yet he does not tire of asking Anambra people to reject Ngige and his supporters in the Action Congress of Nigeria because, as he claims, the ACN is a Yoruba party, unlike his All Progressives Grand Alliance which he unabashedly calls the Igbo party. The ACN may well be a Yoruba party, but you can never hear that from the lips of Tinubu or Fashola. Why does the Obi group mouth APGA’s Igboness from the rooftops? Does the tiger need to proclaim its tigritude, as Wole Soyinka once said about negritude philosophy? Can APGA grow in leaps and bounds by alienating non-Igbo Nigerians from it? No wonder, ACN has been waxing stronger across the nation, but not APGA.
There is a determined effort at what Okey Ndibe, the famous writer and columnist, calls systematic North Koreanisation of Anambra State. The government wants to turn the people into robots, that is, elements grossly incapable of independent thought and action, as they rely thoughtlessly and wholly on government’s relentless and energetic propaganda, the type well bereft of verisimilitude. How did the home state of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chinua Achebe, Chike Obi, Louis Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Pius Okigbo, K.O. Dike, Ukpabi Asika, Olaudah Equiano, Mokwugo Okoye, Nwafor Orizu, etc, come to the present state? Governor Obi himself would ask rhetorically, “Is the fault with us? Or is it in our star?â€
•Adinuba, head of Discovery Public Affairs Consulting, wrote this article for TheNEWS magazine | https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2011/08/24/how-peter-obi-rules-anambra-state-%E2%80%94don-adinuba/ | 1,705 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999765 |
After 22 years as a dictator, Yahya Jammeh was ready to relinquish power but not without a deal to protect him and his political allies from political harassment by the incoming administration.
Immediately, it was announced that he had lost elections to the opposition candidate, Adama Barrow, Jammeh called Barrow in a televised session to concede. He stressed that Barrow needed to work with him for a peaceful transition of power but Barrow did not seem to get Jammeh’s political tone. He suddenly began holding public talks and stressing that he would probe and prosecute Jammeh when sworn in.
This was a grave mistake by Barrow and Jammeh was not going to allow anyone pose a threat to his freedom after power. He announced that he had rejected the election results due to suspicions of abnormalities. The world went berserk calling for Jammeh’s head yet Jammeh was unmoved. He knew exactly what he wanted.
After weeks of unwillingness to relinquish power, ECOWAS stepped in to negotiate but to no avail. Jammeh waited until a deal was reached before accepting to step down. Below are some of the points reached in the deal:
1. ECOWAS declared that they would halt any military operations in The Gambia for the sub-regional body to continue the pursuit of the peaceful and political resolution of the crisis.
2. ECOWAS, the AU, and the UN, in the deal, made a commitment to work with the new Gambian government to pave the way for Jammeh’s return to the country at any time he chooses in line with international human rights legislations and his right as a Gambian citizen and former president.
3. The three bodies also promised to ensure that countries that elect to host Jammeh and his family during the temporary exile period are not made to endure harassment, intimidation, sanctions and sundry pressures.
4. The new Gambian government was urged to provide assurance that supporters and members of Jammeh’s government are not subjects of intimidation or harassment.
5. According to the details of the deal, the international bodies also made a commitment to work with the new government to prevent the seizure of assets and properties lawfully acquired by Jammeh, his family, cabinet members, government officials and supporters of his political party
6. The ousted dictator was equally assured by ECOWAS, the AU, and the UN that the government of his successor would enact legislations inimical to the treatment of himself, his family and supporters with dignity.
Take note of numbers 4,5 and 6. Jammeh ensured that the deal secured not only his freedom and that of his family but also that of his political allies.
In one deal, Jammeh avoided what happened to Charles Taylor, Ghadaffi, Mubarak and What is happening right now to Goodluck Jonathan.
This is what Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan could not do for even his family members.
After peacefully conceding and relinquishing power to Buhari, Goodluck Jonathan, his family, relatives and political allies have been constantly persecuted by the Buhari led administration till date.
Some for seemingly justifiable claims and others for false and baseless accusations. The list of those persecuted are endless including Patience Jonathan, Nigeria’s immediate past first lady and wife of Goodluck Jonathan.
So while you lambast Yahya Jammeh and while I agree with you that he is not an example of a good leader nor can he fit into the shoes of Goodluck Jonathan’s leadership strides, always remember that he is a better leader to his relatives and political allies than our own Goodluck Jonathan is to his relatives and allies.
Philip Thomas (Comrade Phils) writes from Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/09/kogi-govt-debunks-allegations-of-diverting-n20bn-bailout-funds/amp/Yahya | 805 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999979 |
Africans lost their wealth while pursuing riches. You can be wealthy without necessarily being rich as long as you have enough to feed your family or country without handouts and outside income to survive. Riches means more income above and beyond necessities. You can still be wealthy beyond basic need for food, shelter and sex as long as you are contented with your way of life. Agriculture no matter how great a country, still remains the most important survival skill on earth. Always used as weapon by rich countries.
Gold and silver that Africa has in abundance in reserve, were considered secure saving; hoarded and displayed as ornaments without the need to sell. They were transferred from one generation to the next as a symbol of family wealth. We noticed this culture of wealth generally in world history and in African history particularly. This is why Mansa Kaka Musa and Queen of Sheba remain the richest man and woman of all times.
However, our definition of wealth has changed into riches beyond our means when they replaced trade by barter with “hard” international currencies and we accepted. Abandonment of the gold standard created one of the casualties by manipulations. It only worked very well for the continued domineering of the weak by the powerful, they lord over the serfs, the farm owners over the workers and finally the subtle threat of war over weaker countries.
If you think money can make you wealthy or even rich, think about all the money Nigeria made from oil and what their rich managers did with it. Today, if there is one point Nigerians agree on; it is that the oil money was a curse on the Country! When we take all the years it has taken us buying and displaying what we need and all we do not need, our wants became “feferities” or show-off as riches. We wasted years, resources and the income.
Other African countries must learn from Nigeria. One of the leaders claimed in the early seventies that money was not the problem but how to spend it. Another one of the ministers in the 80s said: Americans pick food from the garbage but only crazy Nigerians would do that. Today there are children and families living on environmental dumps.
While wealthy Africans were looking for western riches, they became indentured to Western and Asian countries. After Independence in the 50s and 60s, Africa has nothing to show for its wealth in natural resources but multiple debts sinking Africa further into odious loans from the Europeans, Americans and now Chinese. If you are wondering how we got here, think about the work of Cesar Chavez in North America or better still Kwame Nkrumah on Neo-colonization.
Those of us that remember Cesar Chavez, a lawyer that worked with poor migrants in American farms, know that by the time these workers paid for their food and lodging, they had nothing left from their salaries. Many of them even owed and their wives and kids indentured. The same is true today between African and rich countries. The tough work Africans shun at home, they do abroad. If Africans and South Americans provide slave labor in Europe and Americas, we could provide paid labor in our countries.
Africa has the most arable land of all the continents. American corporations like Monsanto, Europeans and now Chinese are buying land for agribusiness. The same land Africans refused to till at home are been sold in Zimbabwe dollars (after devaluation and Structural Adjustment). The crops that are grown in Africa are dictated and sold worldwide to the highest bidders while we import their food. Yet Africa cannot feed itself.
If you want to dispossess a people, a country or a continent; replace their basic needs and taste, exchange these with exotic ones like food, automobiles and plastics. Turn foreign food into their immediate needs: replace cassava or corn bread with wheat bread. The best way to subdue a people or a country is to make them starve on their acquired tastes and food.
It will generate internal revolts against their rulers, relent to the terms and conditions of their foreign masters as in Devaluation, Structural Adjustment and more. Countries without ways of providing local food for themselves have fallen, not only because of climate change that we blame most: others have found methods of growing food in the most inhospitable environment employing African or poor slave labor by old crude revitalized technology.
We have to bring up a conversation between Mwalimu Nyerere and President Reagan on his visit to the White House. President Reagan made the point that if you give a man fish, you have to do it every day. But if you teach a man how to fish, he will feed forever. Mwalimu answered him kindly. If a man bought a tractor with a ton of cocoa in 1950 and bought that tractor with two ton of cocoa in 1960; only to buy the same tractor in 1970 with three tons of cocoa! Haba!
Another way of making the same point is when foreigners fish in the waters of the West Indies or Africa. Canned fish sold back to you for ten times of what they bought the same fish. Or if you sell them beans and they canned it with some sugar water and label them as baked beans. The same is true for corned beef most of which were mostly imported until recently. Even then, we still import used, stale and expired goods killing our local agribusiness.
How can we be trained in foreign culture and not desire foreign products? The other side of the discussion is that if African countries have to grow and prosper, they do not have to reinvent the wheel. We need foreign technologies to develop. We must seek and pay for them, no matter the cost until we develop our own. This happen to be a fair point but we have been importing pins, pencils and machineries since Independence!
This is not history. It is still going on right now. Ask an average African what he considers to be wealth or riches, most of them are exotic products that are neither made nor manufactured in his community. Someone put it bluntly from what you step on, sleep on, eat, drink in your house to what you wear and ride to work are probably mostly foreign products.
When we examine our educational system, at some point we come to realize how heavily the system is skewed against our food and culture. Growing up in high schools, we were not allowed to speak our languages (vernacular) and some of us took pride in not learning local languages. This is not history because right now, rich parent and their children do not speak their local language to one another. It is either French, English or Portuguese in this 20s.
If we were crawling with our local civilization, we would be ahead and better off by now. | https://www.modernghana.com/news/914599/economic-environmental-justice-for-africa.html#Another | 1,385 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999989 |
IT is leadership that defines a nation. Essentially, it builds or destroys a nation. General Charles de Gaulle relevantly stated that “nothing great can be done without great (leaders)”.
In other words, national greatness can only result from great leadership, and corollary, national decline is an inescapable consequence of despicable leadership. And Thomas Carlyle made a similar point, “the history of nations is but the biographies of …leaders.” So, the history of the Igbo nation is an anthology of the biographies of Igbo leaders.
The earlier Igbo power elite were exceptionally gifted and far-sighted. They adroitly managed the problems and prospects of the Igbo nation. The then dazzling Igbo successes in all facets of the Nigerian society were testaments to their superb leadership. The subsequent drop in the quality of Igbo leadership, following the 1966 coup, inevitably resulted in the decline of the Igbo nation. Of these post-1966 coup Igbo leaders, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu did the most extensive and profound damage to the Igbo nation.
Among other things, he brought a new paradigm to Igbo leadership. He taught Igbo leaders that it is okay to lead your people into trouble, and then, abandon them and run away, which is perfidy. And that a leader can justifiably be poised to cash in on power and glory, if the “toil, sweat, tears and blood” of his people yields victory but also be positioned to cut and run, if they end up in defeat, which is opportunism. His examples sowed the seeds for a culture of perfidy and opportunism within the ranks of the Igbo leader.
Man is a fleshy lump that will finally be consigned under six feet of earth where it inevitably crumbles to dust. Unless attended by purpose, life is an empty shell. It is purpose (which is naturally associated with duty) that makes life meaningful. A German adage says that “the greatest glory is in doing your duty”. And the ultimate duty is in the service of humanity. There can be no commitment to serve humanity without the willingness to sacrifice self interests, comfort and ambitions to the common good. I have always been enthralled by acts of selflessness where the individual gives it all, including his life, for the betterment of others. The obsession to cling on to life is all normal. But to lay it down for a cause, if necessary, is most glorious.
As I think of sacrifice, I remember a French lieutenant, during the First World War, who commanded a company of soldiers ordered to attack a German redoubt. As they ran towards the German position, they came under heavy German machine gun fire. At a point, he ordered his men to take cover. Still standing, and giving orders to them, he was struck by machine gun fire. He fell, and his men panicked, “the lieutenant is dead”, “the lieutenant is dead”. He raised his head and managed to raise himself to his knees, and evidently, with his last breathe, screamed, “Yes, the lieutenant is dead, but hold firm! Advance!” He fell and died.
And, as I reflect on selflessness, I remember Martin Luther King Jr. He was a 26 year old pastor when the course of his life was redirected by the needs of his people. He employed his elaborate erudition and his abilities to write with power and speak with passion to lead his people out of the fetters of racism. He knew that his death was certain in that struggle to emancipate Black Americans from the shackles of racial injustice. In his last speech, he talked about, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long time, longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will…And He has allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I have looked over and I have seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land”. The next day, he laid in the pool of his own blood; his thirty eight year old life squelched out by an assassin’s bullet.
The valedictory statements of the two men conveyed the same attitude. The lieutenant’s exhortation to his men, “hold firm, advance” and King’s “I may not get there with you but … we as a people will get to the Promise Land” reveal a willing to selflessly fight for a cause, even with the certainty that they were not to partake in the magnificent outcomes of the struggle. Is that attitude not in stark contrast with the mindset of the generality of the present day Igbo leaders?
Most Igbo leaders are selfish; they seek personal gains and immediate gratifications. They acknowledge and respect no other interest but theirs. They expect their “leadership” positions to yield them immediate benefits: prestige, wealth, titles, glory, etc. And the thought that to lead their people demands personal sacrifices is alien and inconceivable to them. As such, craven toadies and relentless opportunists parade themselves as Igbo leaders. We need to winnow these men; sorting out the few that are answering an inner urge to serve humanity.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/07/new-standards-for-igbo-leaders/ | 1,148 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999996 |
By Prince Okafor
A medical expert has linked frequent use of tissue paper popularly known as toilet roll to one of the root cause of cervical cancer in women.
Disclosing this during the 2019 Beauty West Africa Exhibition in Lagos, an Indonesian traditional health specialist, at Tirta Ayu Spa, recalled that toilet tissue was a consumer product used at homes, offices, restaurants, hotel, either as facial tissue (paper handkerchiefs), napkins, bathroom tissue and household towels for hygiene purposes. According to one of the Managers for traditional V-Spa Tirta Ayu, Ibu Isti, Tissue paper is made from recycled paper and gives dioxin which is an artificial whitener so it is not good for use.”
She explained that dioxins are a group of highly toxic chemical compounds that are harmful to health
“They can cause problems with reproduction, development, and the immune system. They can also disrupt hormones and lead to cancer.”
Commenting on the bulk production of tissue paper, he explained that just like cigarettes is not good but it is still produced in a large quantity so is tissue paper.
“This product is gotten from the recycling of various products. After the recycling, most manufacturers add this dioxin, which turns the product white. Many people uses public toilets and still wipe their butt with tissue paper.
“This chemical is highly reactive if it used most time by ladies for wiping their butt and sensitive organs, it gives rise to itching feeling, and sometimes causes rashes as well as cervical cancer.
“It is advisable for individuals after using the toilet to wash their organs with water. This will help reduce the effect of the infection from the toilet.”
The Federal Government recently placed a ban on the importation of finished toilet rolls, serviettes, amongst others, to encourage the local production of the product and create much-needed employment.
Forms of paper used in the production of tissue paper can include various forms of recycled paper, virgin tree pulp, as well as hemp plants. The main materials used to produce toilet paper are water, tree pulp, chemicals for extracting fibre and bleach (e.g. choline diozide).
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/12/why-nigerians-should-avoid-use-of-tissue/ | 481 | Health | 3 | en | 0.999981 |
For a little more than four years, Nigeria was the great African exception: it was democratic and had money.
After years of military rule, Nigeria adopted a constitution in 1978 and held federal, state and presidential elections in 1979. And as the price of oil skyrocketed, the country began to enjoy economic prosperity, a degree of social stability and political influence among the African states.
As in other oil-rich nations, however, Nigeria's wealth was not evenly distributed. A few Nigerians became billionaires, while many lived in squalor. But both Government spokesmen and Western friends would say that the country and its institutions needed time to mature.
Another Military Coup
But when revenues from oil dropped precipitously as a worldwide oversupply of oil brought prices down, time ran out for President Shehu Shagari. On the last day of 1983, a junta of young generals quickly and almost bloodlessly swept out the politicians, along with the fledgling constitution and institutions of civilian government.
The soldiers said that what Nigeria had was a sham democracy, not an infant democracy. And the economy, they said, was not developing at all. On the contrary, said the regime's leader, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Buhari, the economy was in danger of collapse.
That Nigeria's economic situation had become critical - and still is - is difficult to dispute. Certainly, former President Shagari, now being held under protective custody, recognized this. | https://mobile.nytimes.com/1984/01/30/business/nigeria-s-search-for-recovery.html | 297 | Politics | 3 | en | 0.999977 |
ISTANBUL — Billions of Christians around the world are excited to celebrate Christmas this weekend. Those in the world’s second-largest religious community, Muslims, don’t share quite the same excitement. In a few Muslim-majority countries, like Saudi Arabia, Brunei and Somalia, Christmas celebrations are banned. In Turkey, my country, they are not illegal, but some Islamist groups still organize annual protests against Christmas trees and Santa Claus costumes, which they consider Western impositions.
Meanwhile, many other Muslims around the world are rightly respectful to their Christian neighbors and even share in their holy day. They include the owners of a Turkish restaurant in London that decided to offer a free Christmas meal to the homeless and the elderly, and a Muslim businessman in Baghdad who erected a Christmas tree in solidarity with Christians persecuted by the self-declared Islamic State.
These Christmas-friendly Muslims are right, but not simply because respect for other religions is a virtue. They are also right because Christmas is the celebration of the miraculous birth of Jesus, which is a powerful theme not just in the New Testament, but also in the Quran.
Two chapters of the Muslim holy book give detailed accounts of the birth of Jesus, which partly resemble the account in the Gospel of Luke.
Both chapters — one is named Maryam, or Mary — feature this admirable Jewish woman whom God has “purified” and “chosen above all other women.”
As the Quran narrates, an angel approached Mary one day and told her that God had decided to give her “a pure boy.” Mary objected: “How can I have a boy when no man has touched me?” The angel responded, “God creates whatever he wills.” Then God “breathes into Mary of our spirit,” and she conceives Isa, or Jesus. | http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/opinion/why-its-not-wrong-to-wish-muslims-merry-christmas.html?ref=todayspaper&referer= | 387 | Religion | 2 | en | 0.999914 |
By Clifford Ndujihe
Section 69 of the 1999 Constitution provides 10 clear but tortuous steps on how a senator can be recalled from the Senate.
The steps are:
More than half of the registered voters in the Senator’s senatorial district write, sign and send a petition to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC alleging their loss of confidence in the senatorial
The petition must be signed, and arranged according to polling units, wards, Local Government Areas, and constituency.
INEC notifies the Senator sought to be recalled, stating that it has received a petition for his or her recall, if the petition is valid
INEC issues a public notice or announcement stating the date, time and location of the verification of signatures to the petition
INEC verifies the signatures to the petition at the designation. The signatories must be individuals who appear on the voters’ register.
INEC conducts a referendum if more than one half (50% + 1) of the signatories are verified
INEC writes to the petitioners stating that the minimum requirements for a referendum were not met, if the number verified is less than one half of the registered voters in that constituency. The petition will therefore be dismissed.
INEC conducts a referendum within 90 days of receipt of the petition if the minimum requirements for a referendum are met. The referendum will be a simple yes or no vote on whether the Senator should be recalled, and will be decided by simple majority of the votes of the persons registered to vote in that Senator’s constituency.
If majority of the voters in the constituency vote ‘yes’ the Chairman of the INEC will send a Certificate of Recall to the Senate President to effect the recall.
The Senate President will show affected senator the way out of the Senate.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/07/10-steps-recall-senator-nigeria | 388 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999977 |
Love gone broken
Men with numerous lovers have a lower risk of developing prostate cancer-because they have more sex, scientists say.
Lotharios who have had more than 20 partners have a 28 per cent reduced risk compared with men who have had only one sexual partner in their lifetime, they claim.
But it is the amount of sex they have rather than the number of partners that cuts the cancer risk.
Lead researcher Prof. Marie-Elise Parent, from the University of Montreal, said: ‘It is possible that having many female sexual partners results in a higher frequency of ejaculations, whose protective effect against prostate cancer has been previously observed in cohort studies.’
Men who are virgins are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer as those who are sexually experienced, it was claimed.
One theory is that large numbers of ejaculation may reduce the concentration of cancer-causing substances in prostatic fluid, a constituent of semen.
But the same is not true for gay men-Where having more than 20 male partners doubles the risk of prostate cancer.
The danger of a less aggressive cancer type also rises five-fold, possibly to do with greater exposure to sexually transmitted infections or the forum of gay sex.
More than 3,200 men aged between 40 and 79 answered questions about their lifestyle and sex lives in the prostate cancer and environment study.
Prof. Parent added: ‘We were fortunate to have participants who were comfortable talking about their sexuality.’
Culled from Metro Herald.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/09/having-more-than-20-partners-reduces-prostate-cancer-risk/ | 330 | Romance | 2 | en | 0.99999 |
William Shakespeare said, “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” Had Shakespeare encountered your political godfather, he might have advised you not to take a crown from him. Not because your head is too small for the crown but Shakespeare had warned in The Tempest, “What is past is prologue.” In other words, history will always come to haunt the present. Edmund Burke said it differently, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”
The man crowned Ali Sherrif. Once Sheriff became tired of being his zombie, he went for Sheriff’s jugular. Then he crowned Chief Secondus and put him in his pocket. Once Secondus crept out of his pocket to get fresh air, he discovered that Secondus was a chameleon. After discarding Secondus, he crowned Professor Ayu. When Ayu refused to be used like an aju — a head cushion for carrying loads, he discovered that Ayu was corrupt. Had Shakespeare encountered that your godfather, he might have said to you, “Beware of a borrowed crown from the green-eyed political merchant of Obio Akpor.”
Governor Fubara, many believe your chickens have come home to roost. Shakespeare would have said, “ You have set your life upon a cast, so you must stand the hazard of the die.” But don’t despair. The priority now is to dismantle the megalomania. I listened to you at the House of Assembly, and I heard the voice of a tormented man.
That day, after the police baptized you with water and fire, you broke your shackles and made a promise to the people. The youths gathered but not to worship you. They gathered because when you shouted wolf! wolf! wolf! They came to dare the wolf. In daring the wolf they reasserted their proprietary rights over state power. Yes, power belongs to the people. But if you now say you belong to the wolf family, then you are on your own. Remember, Shakespeare said, “Cowards die many times before their death.”
In May 2023, the Wagner boss had Putin in a chokehold. His men had besieged Moscow. Putin was his godfather. But he thought Putin’s iron-fisted rule and recklessness in Ukraine had left too much anguish and misery in Russian homes. Then the President of Belarus intervened and preached peace. The Wagner boss, who had drawn his sword, sheathed it. He listened to peacemakers and went to Belarus. Now, he is in the grave.
Some say he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day. But if a Man marries a woman for his friend and buys him a mat, is the groom supposed to share his bride and bedroom with the benefactor in the name of loyalty? The godfather has said that you want to steal his structure. And he is singing “Agreement is agreement.” You know the agreement you reached with him. But how can he marry for you and seek to help you consummate the marriage?
Shouldn’t he go to his house to receive the accolades from there? Your critics say that a man who has collected a wasp with his head must endure the stings. Because you can’t like the anus in that Igbo proverb claim ignorance. The anus said that had it been informed of the waywardness of its neighbour it would have chosen to live elsewhere. I will resist the urge to join them in being judgmental until you make up your mind.
Now, the peacemakers are circling and peddling platitudes. Some are regurgitating liturgies written for them by your megalomanic godfather. They have called you a rascal ingrate. They are insinuating that you have bitten the fingers that fed you. They have told the world that you have set fire to the bridge that ferried you from obscurity to the limelight. But you know the truth. Some of these clowns are labouring under the same bondage. Mahatma Gandhi said, “When a slave starts to take pride in his fetters and hugs them like precious ornaments, the triumph of the slaveowner is complete.”
You gave the man your all. The EFCC declared you wanted. You stayed loyal and took the shame. You didn’t ask to be chosen. You were promised a free hand to run the state. You didn’t lobby to be his heir. He promised not to make you his puppet and let the people mock you.
This feud didn’t start today. You have been humiliated. You have been treated worse than a houseboy. You have swallowed indignity without salt. For five months, you were a mere decoration in the government house. Permit me to say that you were a dummy governor. The man sat on your scrotum and you took it smiling. Now he has poked his fingers in your eyes. If the gods wanted you to remain as government furniture, they wouldn’t have allowed him to start an impeachment process against an innocent man whom he had used like a rag. But the choice is yours. If you go with the peacemakers like a simpleton, it would mean a quiet return to your Egypt.
But, “Golden lads and girls, all must, as chimney sweepers, come to dust.” That was what Shakespeare said about life. You echoed it at the House of Assembly, “If I die, I die.” The boys in the street in Port Harcourt who came to fight for you would say, “All die na die.” You might not have come to equity with washed hands. But the man dies in the fellow who stays silent like a sheep in the face of naked tyranny and oppression. If You go with the peacemakers, they will return you to your beautiful cage. You might get more milk for some time. But before long, you will be sold for peanuts in the market.
Life is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing. That was what Shakespeare said. And Shakespeare didn’t even come across you and your political father. The House of Assembly has been razed. Some of the youths that showed up for you have been arrested. Your godfather called it a small internal wrangling. You said it was a father-son misunderstanding.
Those who stood by you have now become meddlesome interlopers in a family feud. Idle busybodies. Our ancestors in Igbo land warned us not to discard even worn baskets because we would need them to offer sacrifices to the gods. I know how you feel. You are now running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. But don’t listen to reprobates when they talk about betrayal. The government is not the Sicilian mafia. Whatever you owe him can be paid to the people through selfless service.
In conclusion, Mr governor, you must fight or resign. The vultures are circling. Only your fall will appease the jilted god with a blinding ego. Now, you have drawn your sword. You will sheathe at your peril. You must charge through and dismantle the contraption. Otherwise, you must tuck in your tail and run away. You can’t leave your carcass for the wild dogs. To sit and fiddle with the idea of reconciliation is to submit your scrotum to a jilted lover to cure your elephantiasis.
If you do that, neither kinsmen nor in-laws can save you from castration. The fight has come to you. The people are with you. They are hungry and deprived. You can’t serve them from that gilded cage. Don’t let them down. But once you chicken out, you must flee. Every creature must meet death. But a grasshopper that dies in the hands of an Okpoko dies prematurely, and dies because of deafness. A good name is better than riches and power. I have emptied my mouth
My greetings to your godfather.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/11/a-letter-to-gov-sim-fubara-by-ugoji-egbujo/amp/?fbclid=IwAR0t9JETjT6WNhdtUGBqoHFU5MAdeTDQita-rANfchTKgkkCbBZQzTrV2D4 | 1,719 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999922 |
Doctors in New York and California have diagnosed among homosexual men 41 cases of a rare and often rapidly fatal form of cancer. Eight of the victims died less than 24 months after the diagnosis was made.
The cause of the outbreak is unknown, and there is as yet no evidence of contagion. But the doctors who have made the diagnoses, mostly in New York City and the San Francisco Bay area, are alerting other physicians who treat large numbers of homosexual men to the problem in an effort to help identify more cases and to reduce the delay in offering chemotherapy treatment.
The sudden appearance of the cancer, called Kaposi's Sarcoma, has prompted a medical investigation that experts say could have as much scientific as public health importance because of what it may teach about determining the causes of more common types of cancer. First Appears in Spots
Doctors have been taught in the past that the cancer usually appeared first in spots on the legs and that the disease took a slow course of up to 10 years. But these recent cases have shown that it appears in one or more violet-colored spots anywhere on the body. The spots generally do not itch or cause other symptoms, often can be mistaken for bruises, sometimes appear as lumps and can turn brown after a period of time. The cancer often causes swollen lymph glands, and then kills by spreading throughout the body.
Doctors investigating the outbreak believe that many cases have gone undetected because of the rarity of the condition and the difficulty even dermatologists may have in diagnosing it.
In a letter alerting other physicians to the problem, Dr. Alvin E. Friedman-Kien of New York University Medical Center, one of the investigators, described the appearance of the outbreak as ''rather devastating.'' | https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/03/us/rare-cancer-seen-in-41-homosexuals.html | 350 | Romance | 3 | en | 0.99999 |
What London School Of Economics Did Not Teach Africans
Why African goldcannot back African currencies? What African scholars did not learn in London School of Economics, Wharton School and others is that politics of western privileges comes before economics or Gold Standard. Politics dictates which economic theories they adhered to. English common lawsare built on these privileged economic theories. So common laws upon which western economic laws are based shapepolicieswhereregulations are made or enacted.
Natural resources stolen before Independence deserve remuneration compared to those taken with the full cooperation of leaders. Repatriation of gold is different. It was a commodity, not humans, freely taken and royalties paid to another country. Some of us still remember the Gold Standard used to back currencies. Keeping gold reservein other countries in “good hands” as credit.Try to abandon thisglobal monetary system, a high destabilizing measure for western countries that only print paper money without the amount of gold found in Africa to back it up.
Africa is yet to gain equal entry into world Trading Club. Even when we areBanana Republic.By the rulingof World Trade Organization in 2012, small farmers in St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Grenada, Dominica and Martinique lost the banana trade war to our Latin American countries .Ifyou are following the trade threats between United States and China,you know that China, despite its authoritarian and communist system, was allowed into the Rich Country Club to spite Russia.
In the Judeo-Christian Tradition of Capitalism on which these moral values are based, there is little moral obligations for serfs, slaves or captured non westerners by war or conversion into Judeo-Christian beliefs and culture. Clergies bless them for rewards in heaven. The Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealings curbed excessive greed within the western society, not outside of it. So while they preach moral obligations within, it does not extend to those “aliens”.
However, the liberals, unlike conservatives, argue otherwise. It must be stated that it was the old economic order, privileged class depended on everywhere. Even in Africa, men have their privileges over women. It has been reformed but custom still remains with “kinder and gentler” conservatives (good old days men) in the western world. This is the basis of the opposite views between conservative religious right and otherreligiousbodies to the left and center doctrines.
The scramble for Africa was not by accident, but a well-executed plan in order to get raw materials for the sustenance and enrichment of the western world. Raw materials could only feed the industrial machines of the conquerors from which finished products are made. By the time finished goods are sold back to providers of raw material, excessive profits, jobs creation and growth at home but only crumbs paid back to Africa. China deals not as bad for alternative.
Indira Gandhi got India to the door of Rich Club after condemning “Aids”. She demanded equal Trade not “Aids”.Indeed, greed is a motivation for riches and it is not the means that matter but achievement of their goals. They eased India and Pakistan in with the prerequisite of Nuclear Power into the Trading Club. North Korea will finally get incentives not to go ballistic.
Many countries have been able to bring their gold back home after the wars that devastated their countries. Recently, Germany brought its gold back home from United States. Many other Asian and South American countries have done the same, keeping it out of the reach of enemies as in the case of Russia against East and West Germany.
However, Venezuela under Hugo Chavez brought its gold home in protest against capitalism with little effect trumped by western politics. More disconcerting to Europe and America was the cause championed by the former Strongman of Libya, Mohammed Gadhafi. He wanted the Gold Standard brought back to back each currency. He went further, proposed that most oil producing countries should change from United States dollar to dinar or oil currency.
Libya paid$2.7bfor Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people.Then, Gadhafi regime became tolerable to the western world since he was willing to give up his nuclear intelligence obtained from Pakistan. He actually became an “important ally”. He later became a target for regime change within a few years after proposing dinar for African oil producing countries.
This is 2018 and many African countries are still robbed of their natural resources in gold, diamond, cobalt, uranium, tin, cooper, oil and gas flared with cooperation of the local cabals without any accountabilities. When Zimbabwe asked for lithium refinery, agreement stalked. The GhanaCustoms Division Revenue Authority (GRA), impounded 12 boxes at the Kotoka International Airport containing gold bullion weighing about 480kg, valued at US$18million .
Nigeria does not have a firm grip of the amount of crude oil leaving the country. Gas is still being flared after promises and ignored laws to capture it for energy because they would rather import refined oil and gas into the country. Recently some foreign citizens were arrested for illegal mining but only a few of them were convicted in Nigeria .
Ironically, Gold Standard to back currencies became a common demand between both right and left political wings. Western gold reservebanks are not backing their currencies with gold anymore while African currencies with more gold that western countries, are devalued into toilet papers. Whenchallenged, Lumumba was murdered, Ujamaa in Tanzania was rubbished. Zimbabwe suddenly tumbled from the Queen dearest to a country whose currency was useless.
The use of vicious force and economics of privilege is clear. As other continents were found or discovered, indigenous people of Africa and America became subservient to western privileged class. Asia could not be swallowed fully, so they conquered the countries they could. Those that were not compliant were subdued by force as the use of Atomic Bomb in Japan. The subdued people were either captured, killed or used as slaves for their own privileged prosperity.
There was a country called Gold Coast, the present day Ghana, which lost its gold and royalties to England under a different circumstances in the days of colonialism. Most civilized countries now agreed that colonialism was as wrong as slavery. But they are not the same. In the case of slavery, Diaspora Africans are demanding repatriation in the form of compensation for free labor they performed in building western countries. | https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/265353/what-london-school-of-economics-did-not-teach-africans.html# | 1,314 | Business | 2 | en | 0.999926 |
Toothpick is one of the effected items.
Ilorin – Dr Alatishe Muhammad, an expert in Dentistry in Ilorin, has warned that using toothpick to remove food remnant from teeth could harm the teeth and gums.
Muhammad said on Thursday in Ilorin that what was medically recommended was cleaning between the teeth at least once a day, using an interdental cleaner such as floss.
The dentist explained that a toothpick was not considered as an interdental cleaner, and as such it was not recommended for cleaning teeth.
“Using a toothpick is not an ideal way to remove something stuck between your teeth.
“Toothpicks can cause abrasion and damage to your teeth at the base where they meet the gums.
“This can lead to gum disease and other dental problems,” he said.
Muhammad said that preventive dentistry was the modern ways of helping individuals keep a healthy mouth.
He added that preventive dentistry helped keep the teeth healthy, leaving people with less of dental treatment.
“Every age group can benefit from preventive dentistry, including the very elderly, the very young ones and also those without teeth where mouth cancer and denture stomatitis can be prevented.”
The expert further advised people on the need to eat healthily through consumption of fruits, vegetables, adequate nutrition, diet and less sugary substances.
“Avoid smoking and alcohol consumption, ingestion of fizzy and acidic drinks with straw is better than alcohol.”
According to him, brushing of teeth should be done at other times during the day and also last thing at night.
Besides, Muhammad advised people against visiting traditional homes to remove fictitious worms from the mouth.
He said that such method made people to fall victims and incur more harm than good.
The dentist also urged people to embark on regular checkups in approved dental clinics every three months and cleaning of teeth every six months.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/use-toothpick-causes-harm-teeth-gums-dentist-warns/ | 426 | Health | 2 | en | 0.999924 |
The myth of altruism and generosity surrounding Mother Teresa is dispelled in a paper by Serge Larivée and Genevieve Chenard of University of Montreal’s Department of Psychoeducation and Carole Sénéchal of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Education.
The paper will be published in the March issue of the journal Studies in Religion/Sciences religieuses and is an analysis of the published writings about Mother Teresa. Like the journalist and author Christopher Hitchens, who is amply quoted in their analysis, the researchers conclude that her hallowed image—which does not stand up to analysis of the facts—was constructed, and that her beatification was orchestrated by an effective media relations campaign.
“While looking for documentation on the phenomenon of altruism for a seminar on ethics, one of us stumbled upon the life and work of one of Catholic Church’s most celebrated woman and now part of our collective imagination—Mother Teresa—whose real name was Agnes Gonxha,” says Professor Larivée, who led the research. “The description was so ecstatic that it piqued our curiosity and pushed us to research further.”
As a result, the three researchers collected 502 documents on the life and work of Mother Teresa. After eliminating 195 duplicates, they consulted 287 documents to conduct their analysis, representing 96% of the literature on the founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity (OMC). Facts debunk the myth of Mother Teresa
In their article, Serge Larivée and his colleagues also cite a number of problems not take into account by the Vatican in Mother Teresa’s beatification process, such as “her rather dubious way of caring for the sick, her questionable political contacts, her suspicious management of the enormous sums of money she received, and her overly dogmatic views regarding, in particular, abortion, contraception, and divorce.”
‘The sick must suffer like Christ on the cross’
At the time of her death, Mother Teresa had opened 517 missions welcoming the poor and sick in more than 100 countries. The missions have been described as “homes for the dying” by doctors visiting several of these establishments in Calcutta. Two-thirds of the people coming to these missions hoped to a find a doctor to treat them, while the other third lay dying without receiving appropriate care. The doctors observed a significant lack of hygiene, even unfit conditions, as well as a shortage of actual care, inadequate food, and no painkillers. The problem is not a lack of money—the Foundation created by Mother Teresa has raised hundreds of millions of dollars—but rather a particular conception of suffering and death: “There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ’s Passion. The world gains much from their suffering,” was her reply to criticism, cites the journalist Christopher Hitchens. Nevertheless, when Mother Teresa required palliative care, she received it in a modern American hospital.
Mother Teresa’s questionable politics and shadowy accounting
Mother Teresa was generous with her prayers but rather miserly with her foundation’s millions when it came to humanity’s suffering. During numerous floods in India or following the explosion of a pesticide plant in Bhopal, she offered numerous prayers and medallions of the Virgin Mary but no direct or monetary aid. On the other hand, she had no qualms about accepting the Legion of Honour and a grant from the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti. Millions of dollars were transferred to the MCO’s various bank accounts, but most of the accounts were kept secret, Larivée says. “Given the parsimonious management of Mother Theresa’s works, one may ask where the millions of dollars for the poorest of the poor have gone?”
The grand media plan for Mother Teresa’s holiness
Despite these disturbing facts, how did Mother Teresa succeed in building an image of holiness and infinite goodness? According to the three researchers, her meeting in London in 1968 with the BBC’s Malcom Muggeridge, an anti-abortion journalist who shared her right-wing Catholic values, was crucial. Muggeridge decided to promote Teresa, who consequently discovered the power of mass media. In 1969, he made a eulogistic film of the missionary, promoting her by attributing to her the “first photographic miracle,” when it should have been attributed to the new film stock being marketed by Kodak. Afterwards, Mother Teresa travelled throughout the world and received numerous awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize. In her acceptance speech, on the subject of Bosnian women who were raped by Serbs and now sought abortion, she said: “I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing—direct murder by the mother herself.”
Following her death, the Vatican decided to waive the usual five-year waiting period to open the beatification process. The miracle attributed to Mother Theresa was the healing of a woman, Monica Besra, who had been suffering from intense abdominal pain. The woman testified that she was cured after a medallion blessed by Mother Theresa was placed on her abdomen. Her doctors thought otherwise: the ovarian cyst and the tuberculosis from which she suffered were healed by the drugs they had given her. The Vatican, nevertheless, concluded that it was a miracle. Mother Teresa’s popularity was such that she had become untouchable for the population, which had already declared her a saint. “What could be better than beatification followed by canonization of this model to revitalize the Church and inspire the faithful especially at a time when churches are empty and the Roman authority is in decline?” Larivée and his colleagues ask.
Positive effect of the Mother Teresa myth
Despite Mother Teresa’s dubious way of caring for the sick by glorifying their suffering instead of relieving it, Serge Larivée and his colleagues point out the positive effect of the Mother Teresa myth: “If the extraordinary image of Mother Teresa conveyed in the collective imagination has encouraged humanitarian initiatives that are genuinely engaged with those crushed by poverty, we can only rejoice. It is likely that she has inspired many humanitarian workers whose actions have truly relieved the suffering of the destitute and addressed the causes of poverty and isolation without being extolled by the media. Nevertheless, the media coverage of Mother Theresa could have been a little more rigorous.”
About the study
The study was conducted by Serge Larivée, Department of psychoeducation, University of Montreal, Carole Sénéchal, Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, and Geneviève Chénard, Department of psychoeducation, University of Montreal.
The printed version, available only in French, will be published in March 2013 in issue 42 of Studies in Religion / Sciences religieuses.
You must be born again to be saint of God!
Mother Teresa was the biggest example of somebody who does “good” not good. The problem is how the Church enables her message and makes her a saint. Pope Francis and his cronies are passive aggressive in how they ignore the truth and even use dodgy miracles to promote her. The Church consciously fooled people with the Monica besra miracle. A religion needs to be condemned more for the evil it opens the door to than what it does or has done.
A comment says, “If dealing with the suffering brings one closer to God or spurs one on to relieve the suffering of others, that is a good thing.” You don’t need to believe in God to use your suffering to motivate you to reach out and help other sufferers. In fact seeing suffering as random and a fact of life should make you hate it more than one who thinks its part of God’s alleged plot to bring good out of it. To say you do need to believe is just insulting. And how could suffering be good if it makes you close to a God who makes you suffer? Believers in God in some way do wallow in suffering and water down how terrible i t is for others. They cannot admit that a God who hurts people or WORSE who lets them be hurt (letting hurt happen is worse than hurting for at least when you hurt you know how much hurt you expect to happen) is unworthy of worship.
I have realised from a comment above that she had no right to take that Nobel Prize. She was not a true humanitarian. She could not even be trusted with money for she put faith before people and used suffering to invite people to her understanding of faith. Inviting people to a vague sense of faith is one thing but a specific faith is a different matter.
Funny how any criticism of her leads to religious people of accusing critics of not doing good like she did! They do not judge Mother but they are anxious to judge her critics who they know nothing about. The fact remains that many critics and scientists may not do good in a pious way but they do good in other ways and may be better than Mother ever was.
There should be an objective study of account of the funds and the usage thereof to get to the truth. denigrating someone or beatification without knowing the full facts is not correct
“ITS EASIER TO FOOL PEOPLE THAN TO CONVINCE PEOPLE THAT THEY HAVE BEEN FOOLED”—-MARK TWAIN
another Satan in Angels clothing !
I just wasted twenty minutes of my like reading this crap and the associated commentary.
Since we know that capitalism and imperialism are respoonsible for creating the highest levels and deepest depths of poverty known to human and Spirit-kind, we should likewise expect Mother Theresa, the vatican and the roamin catholic church to be staunchly anti-capitalist so as not to support the sustenance and growth of poverty and oppression. We do not see this from them. They are part of the industry of poverty and oppression and parade as the standard bearers of “compassion” and “love”. Let us see what the paper/study has to say. Be willing to have truth and real love revealed as a matter of spiritual course if we continue to find out that the story of Theresa is one of a retrograde reactionism that the populace got manipulated with. Remember that the true heroine/hero is the one that destroys the oppressive system, not the one that trains us to live and die, however quietly, dignifiedly or painfully, with it.
I’d take a Hitchens for the truth, over any of the “saints”…
Truth will allow you to see the lies that keep the “saints” in power over men.
“in bronze age people were pagans and monotheistic”
Ups, it should be – polytheistic.
Excellent article, except “Positive effect …”. Somebody mentioned and compared with “bronze age”. But that’s wrong, in bronze age people were pagans and monotheistic. Monotheistic religions are monopolies and this case is clearly is showing us manipulation and “group think” of Holy See over its followers.
The authors of this report are not mentioning that she had LearJet at disposal and other luxury amenities which are usually associated with the kings.
She is obviously willingly involved in Vatican and capitalist cause.
Christopher Hitchens or Mother teresa, who did more for people?
This article is more Catholicphobia.
Wow.. the author comments about right-wing catholic views. So much for being an unbiased or factual research paper.
If the author wrote this with with a personal view opposed to catholic view then his/her conclusion is inevitable.
I’m all for a factual review of mother teresa’s life.. but there is a big difference between opinions and facts.
Thank the gods that the truth about this woman is slowly coming out. Other reports cite her refusal to provide pain medication to the dying in case they wanted to convert. How many “converted” in order to get pain medication? And she certainly made sure that she didn’t receive care where the poor did. Double standard.
Mother Teresa may have deceived herself, but anyone who goes into ecstasy over poor people dying in pain- while millions of dollars of donations go unaccounted for- is either very, very disturbed or very, very evil.
Possibly those unaccounted millions explain why JPII was so willing to toss aside the usual process in beatification. The delay in beatification is designed to prevent personal popularity from influencing the process: it was completely tossed out for Mother Teresa.
Charity should be done quietly, for no-one other than the giver and receiver. To even enter a pissing contest about “what have you done?” only defeats the purpose.
There are those that do – there are those that don’t. Saying either way is a moot point.
I’m an atheist, but the “Do unto others” thing is a cornerstone of my life – as is “what goes around, come around”.
Spread fake poisonous pseudo-religious crap – eat it at length later…
De mortuis nil nisi bene,de vivis nil nisi verum …
Forget Mother Theresa being a saint and the (your claimed) so called money she has made. My only question to you is what have or could you do for the poor, the old, the illed….
Professor Larivée, other than giving a couple of coins from your wallet….
Whether she be a saint or the richest person on earth, she had the heart to do what you ignored…. that’s what counts….
She’s the prime example of what happens when you adhere to bronze age peasant mentalities.
“She was not a friend of the poor she was a friend of poverty.” | http://scienceblog.com/60730/mother-teresa-anything-but-a-saint/#GJctCAUj7u0Ms4xW.99 | 2,902 | Religion | 3 | en | 0.999962 |
By Arogbonlo Israel
Democracy Day in Nigeria is being celebrated on the 12th of June of every year. All thanks to President Muhammadu Buhari who, in his solidarity with the late Moshood Abiola popularly called MKO, changed the date from May 29 to June 12.
This day marks the transition of power from the military to a democratically-elected leader in 1999. However, the question now is, is the Nigeria today truly democratic when we still have cases of election rigging among other pitfalls confronting the polity?
It’s true and logical to say no democracy in the world is 100% perfect, but I would rather subscribe to the school of thought that advocate better governance in place of political tyranny.
Reflecting on the life and time of the late MKO, it is crystal clear that the Democracy being practiced in this regime is in no way comparable with what obtained in the 1993 election, an event many observers have described as the most significant in Nigeria’s post-independence political history. It is still viewed as the freest, fairest and most peaceful election ever held in Nigeria.
The 1993 election reflects the true form of democracy Nigeria ever had, as an estimated 14 million Nigerians – irrespective of ethnic, religious, class, and regional affiliations, (in a period when religious acrimony and tension had reached its zenith) – defied bad weather to elect their president with the hope of ending eight years of military dictatorships. What a democracy to behold!
READ ALSO: June 12, Democracy Day: General calm as police stops protesters in Ojota
If Nigeria must overcome its present political quagmire, I think it’s high time we reflected on the good of the 1993 political dispensation and make do with the tenets of the true democracy it brought to bear.
For instance, the country has witnessed a lot of violations of human rights in recent times as a result of the present regime that sees criticisms as destructive. It frowns every form of protest by the people.
There is no government in any democratic clime in the world that is greater than the mandate of the people who elected her into power. No wonder, Abraham Lincoln viewed Democracy as “people-oriented” concept as against the “cabal-oriented” system being practiced in Nigeria today.
Going forward, government should ensure there is room for political participation by ALL the citizens (irrespective of party or ethnic affiliation) if the renaming of Democracy Day after the great democrat, MKO, would be more worthy of emulation by Nigerians.
There is no sense in renaming a day after someone who left a great legacy after many years of witnessing Military rule when our leaders still find it difficult to live his (MKO) exemplary lifestyle.
It’s high time the Nigerian leaders took lessons from the qualities of the late MKO and stop giving room for people to doubt their capacities. Nigerians deserve a better democracy. They want a government that is ready to listen to their plights and not the one blaming its failure for the mistakes of the past administrations. The country has experienced a lot of setbacks in the past and should not be taken aback to the ugly days of disarray.
We crave for a democracy that is based on good governance and not pretense; a democracy that embraces the majority opinion and not the one ruled by the minority (cabal); A democracy that respects the rule of law, sees people as the government and not vise-versa. Until we have all these aforementioned, Nigeria may remain undemocratic regime among community of democratic states in the world.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/06/june-12-democracy-in-undemocratic-regime-what-next/ | 762 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999992 |
Iran is one of the leading executioners of juvenile offenders, despite its improved legal protections for children and a pledge more than two decades ago to end the death penalty for convicts younger than 18, Amnesty International said Monday.
In a new report, Amnesty International said that it had documented the execution of at least 73 juveniles in Iran from 2005 to 2015 and that 160 juvenile offenders are languishing on the country’s death row.
The report casts doubt on laws meant to improve children’s rights in Iran in the past few years, including new discretion by judges to impose alternative punishments on juveniles convicted of capital crimes. In reality, the report said, these changes are attempts by the authorities to “whitewash their continuing violations of children’s rights and deflect criticism of their appalling record as one of the world’s last executioners of juvenile offenders.”
Amnesty International, a leading global advocate for abolition of the death penalty, had also recorded the execution of juveniles in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and there are juveniles on death row in the Maldives and Nigeria.
There is little doubt among rights groups that Iran has executed more people convicted of capital crimes committed as minors than any other country.
“Iran is almost certainly the world leader in executing juvenile offenders,” Michael G. Bochenek, senior counsel of the children’s rights division at Human Rights Watch, said in a post on its website in April. | http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/world/middleeast/iran-still-a-leading-executioner-of-minors-report-says.html?_r=0&referer=https://www.google.com/m?q=Iran+executes+minors | 301 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999971 |
By Sola Ogundipe with Agency Reports
Nigerian-born Dr. Bennet Omalu, currently the Chief Medical Examiner, San Joaquin County, California, and President/Medical Director of Bennet Omalu Pathology, was the first to identify, describe and name a new disorder known as, as a disease entity in American football players and wrestlers.
A forensic pathologist, and certified physician executive in medical management, Omalu, 47, who hails from Anambra state, discovered in 2002 a condition described as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, CTE, a neurodegenerative disease in the brains of football players caused by repeated brain trauma over time and causes depression, dementia, and other behavioural changes.
Popularly known as the “Concussion Doctor”, Omalu made his landmark discovery following an autopsy he performed on former Pittsburgh Steelers star Mike Webster.
Webster, aged 50, had died of a heart attack after years of depression and dementia that led to him becoming homeless and forgetting how to do basic things, such as eating.
From the examination Omalu made of Webster and other football players, including Dave Duerson and Andre Waters, he determined that repeated head trauma from the sport causes a brain condition that leads to memory loss, impaired judgement, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and eventually progressive dementia.
Although doctors knew that boxers suffered brain problems after years of continuous head trauma, it was Omalu who first associated the condition with football players.
When Omalu cut slices from Webster’s brain and looked at them under a microscope, he was surprised to see tangled proteins and other characteristic signs of CTE.
A year later, Omalu examined the brain of Terry Long — another Steelers legend, who’d killed himself at age 45 by drinking antifreeze — and saw the same picture.
“This stuff should not be in the brain of a 45-year-old man,” Omalu later said. “This looks more like a 90-year-old brain with advanced Alzheimer’s.”
Prompted by Omalu’s discovery, doctors at Boston University’s CTE Centre examined 79 deceased NFL players’ brains and found CTE in 76 of them. Many died by suicide or had dramatic changes in personality after retirement. Still, the overall rate of CTE in all players is unknown — it could be an epidemic or a relatively rare problem.
Omalu’s discovery of CTE raised numerous concerns about the safety of American football, a development that the National Football League, NFL, challenged vigorously. For years, though, the NFL tried its best to hide the evidence about football and brain trauma, and after Omalu published his findings, the NFL attempted to cover the facts and accused him of fraud and practicing voodoo.
He was barred from league meetings on football and the brain, along with other doctors who later worked on CTE.
Omalu’s Nigerian descent was questioned and he was accused of attacking the American way of life. But his discovery gained more attention and eventually, the NFL was compelled to introduce a concussion guideline in the game.
But the Nigerian’s finding — and the subsequent discovery of CTE in dozens of deceased football players — subsequently transformed the football world, raising concerns about the safety of American football.
A movie, entitled “Concussion” that is based on this discovery, is scheduled to premiere September 8, 2015, in which Hollywood star, Will Smith, plays Dr. Bennet Omalu. The trailer for the movie released this week, tells the true story of the Nigerian-born doctor’s discovery, and it is expected to make many Americans rethink the dangers of football and how the NFL functions.
In 2009, the league finally acknowledged the problem and instituted concussion management guidelines, which include neuropsychological testing on all NFL players to help determine when a player could return to play after a head injury.
It introduced new protocols to make sure concussed players are properly diagnosed, and donated money for concussion and CTE research.
Omalu obtained his medical degree from the University of Nigeria in 1991, Masters in Public Health, MPH, degree in Epidemiology from University of Pittsburgh in 2004, and Masters in Business Administration, MBA, from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008, and holds four board certifications in Anatomic Pathology, Clinical Pathology, Forensic Pathology and Neuropathology.
He has testified twice before the United States Congress and has provided hundreds of testimonies as an expert witness in federal courts and state courts across the United States. A member of many professional organizations, including but not limited to the College of American Pathologists, American Society of Clinical Pathology, American College of Physician Executives, American College of Epidemiologists, American Association of Neuropathologists, American Academy of Forensic Sciences, National Association of Medical Examiners, International Academy of Pathology and American Medical Association.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/09/how-nigerian-doctor-bennet-omalu-changed-american-football/#sthash.OXx2uuyW.dpuf | 1,053 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999985 |
In recent weeks, one of the hottest questions about the coronavirus has been focused around, quite literally, temperature.
President Trump has suggested that the coronavirus outbreak will be gone by April because “the heat generally speaking kills this kind of virus,” as reported by USA Today. He has appointed Vice President Pence to take charge of the U.S. response to the disease.
But, will the coronavirus be responsive to seasonal changes similar to the flu?
In short, there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that the spread of the disease will abate with warmer weather. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) notes that “at this time, it is not known whether the spread of COVID-19 will decrease when weather becomes warmer.”
COVID-19 is different from the virus strains that cause the flu even though it can lead to similar symptoms of respiratory problems.
So, to glean some insights, we need to look backwards to comparable outbreaks.
The SARS epidemic, which spread in 2002 across Asia, started in November and continued into July. The outbreak was contained comparatively quickly — only 8,000 people worldwide were infected.
MERS began in September 2012 in Saudi Arabia, a country with relatively higher temperatures. “We don’t see too much evidence of seasonality in MERS,” Stuart Weston, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told National Geographic.
The CDC says it is is simply too soon to know how COVID-19 will react when it first encounters warmer springtime temperatures.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/485052-trump-says-coronavirus-will-die-off-in-warmer | 353 | Health | 4 | en | 0.999962 |
The Federal Government of Nigeria has is planning to establish the National Council on Power to achieve the goal of providing sustainable power supply.
When established, the National Council on Power would assist in formulating useful policies and providing the much needed manpower in the power sector.
Speaking at a meeting in Abuja on Monday, the Minister of State for Power, Mr Mohammed Wakil, urged members of the council to use their expertise to make useful observations to the Federal Government to improve the nation’s power sector.
The Nigerian government had in November 2013 concluded the privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, but the process has not yielded much in the sector, as the total power generation is bellow 6,000 megawatts.
The government had said it would welcome more investments in the sector to boost the power supply, which experts said would create jobs and grow the economy. | http://www.channelstv.com/2014/08/12/fg-set-national-council-power/ | 177 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999975 |
A theme is a collection of files that define the presentation layer. You can also create one or more "sub-themes" or variations on a theme.
The .info file is a static text file for defining and configuring a theme. Each line in the .info file is a key-value pair with the key on
The following are the assumed defaults. When they are not defined, the theme will automatically take these values.
If none are defined, the following values are assumed in Drupal 6 and Drupal 7.
While theming page.tpl.php it's possible to check whether a region is empty, by checking the content of the relevant variable which
Various page elements output by the theme can be toggled on and off on the theme's configuration page.
The global settings a theme has
The Color module allows to change the theme color scheme.
Sub-themes are just like any other theme, with one difference: They inherit the parent theme's resources. There are no limits on the
The contents of the .info file is cached in the database, so altering it will not be noticed by Drupal. Also if you add new tpl.php files or
In the previous section, we understood how a sub theme is created along with inheritance of various properties. The table summarises
A Garland sub-theme that utilizes the Color module
Working with CSS in Drupal 7.
- CSS overview
- Overriding style sheets from modules and base themes
- Adding style sheets
- Adding CSS to form or page with attachments
- Adding styles through the API
- Live_css with .less support
- Sass techniques and tools
- Standard Drupal core styles and classes
- .clear-block and .clearfix
- Supporting "right to left" (RTL) languages
You will often need a newer version of jQuery to use a certain jQuery plugin. There are several ways to achieve this.
Core comes with a number of default template files. You can override these templates in a number of ways.
A theme hook suggestion is an alternate template (.tpl.php) file that you have created to override the base or original template file.
Theming blocks in Drupal 7 individually, by region, or by module.
Advanced theming in Drupal 7.
Overriding themable output in Drupal 7.
- Overriding themable output
- Beginners guide to overriding themable output
- Introduction to PHP for theming
- About overriding themable output
- Setting up variables for use in a template (preprocess and process functions)
- Default baseline variables
- Customizing and Overriding User Login page, Register, and Password Reset in Drupal 6 and 7
- How to add a "?destination=URL" to the request new password link
- Useful tutorials & links
- Example: Themable output
- Identifying Core Components
- Core Block CSS IDs
- Mission statement and highlighted region
- Primary and Secondary links renamed to Main and Secondary menu
- Unrendered taxonomy links no longer available as a separate variable in node.tpl.php files
- Menu theming
- Overriding a menu in a block or template file
- The theme registry for special cases
- Working with template suggestions
- Architectural view of theming
This guide provides a guide to accessibility best practices for theme developers.
- Accessibility principles
- Building accessible forms
- Contributed modules to help with accessibility
- Creating accessible site and page navigation
- Creating accessible structure and markup
- Getting started with accessibility
- Hide content properly
- Improving readability with fonts and typography
- Managing images and media for accessibility
- Providing Useful Alternative Text for Images
- Providing a way to skip navigation
- Specifying colors and contrast for accessibility
- Tools for validating accessibility
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Theming HowTos for Drupal 7.
- Change the favicon
- Clearing floats with class="clear-block"
- Convert any website layout or template into a Drupal theme - easily!
- Create a Views event list grouped by month
- Create a new custom theme with CSS alone
- Customize Drupal User Profiles with CiviCRM Contact Fields
- Customize the User Edit page in Drupal 7 - an example
- Customize the front page template
- Customizing core and/or contributed themes
- Enable submit via Enter key on Ajax forms
- How to edit ALT tag on your site logo
- Overriding Theme Templates in Drupal 6 and 7
- Put an HTML non breaking space ( ) in menu items titles
- Rounded Corners in Drupal 7 (jquery corner)
- Show a block depending on node type and node id
- Static and Dynamic Thumbnails for Facebook
- Style a horizontal login block in the footer
- Theming Web-Form
Best practices and conventions for theming Drupal 7.
- Safe theme development
- Theme coding conventions
- Theming the Drupal maintenance page
- Adding your theme to Drupal.org
- Cross-browser testing
- Recommended target browsers
- Creating a screenshot for the appearance page
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- Making your theme semantically correct
- Doctype, XML, and XHTML
- Feature detection
- Creating a custom build of Modernizr based on your Drupal setup
- Modernizr.load() and Drupal: Basics
- Implementing the Modernizr Test API within a module or theme
NOTE: We are now using a different system to track version-to-version changes in Drupal. Most of the theme changes between Drupal 6 and | http://www.drupal.org/documentation/theme | 1,177 | Programming | 2 | en | 0.999985 |
The Jehovah’s Witnesses were begun by Charles Taze Russell in 1872. He was born on February 16, 1852, the son of Joseph L. and Anna Eliza Russell. He had great difficulty in dealing with the doctrine of eternal hellfire, and in his studies came to deny not only eternal punishment but also the Trinity, the deity of Christ, and the Holy Spirit. When Russell was 18, he organized a Bible class in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1879 he sought to popularize his aberrant ideas on doctrine. He co-published The Herald of the Morning magazine with its founder, N. H. Barbour; and by 1884 Russell controlled the publication and renamed it The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom and founded Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society (now known as the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society). The first edition of The Watchtower magazine was only 6,000 copies each month. Today the Witnesses’ publishing complex in Brooklyn, New York, churns out 100,000 books and 800,000 copies of its two magazines – daily!
Russell claimed that the Bible could be only understood according to his interpretations–a dangerous arrangement since he controlled what was written in the Watchtower magazine. This kind of assertion is typical among leaders of cult religions.
After the death of Russell on Oct. 31, 1916, a Missouri lawyer named Joseph Franklin Rutherford took over the presidency of the Watch Tower Society which was known then as the International Bible Students Association. In 1931 he changed the name of the organization to “The Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
After Rutherford’s death, Nathan Knorr took over. After Knorr, Frederick William Franz became president.
The Society was led by Mr. Henschel who died in 2003. The group has over 4 million members worldwide. The Watchtower Society statistics indicate that 740 house calls are required to recruit each of the nearly 200,000 new members who join every year.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have several ‘book studies’ each week. The members are not required to attend, but there is a level of expectation that gently urges converts to participate. It is during these ‘book studies’ that the Jehovah’s Witness is constantly exposed to counter Christian teachings. The average Jehovah’s Witness with his constant Watchtower indoctrination could easily pummel the average Christian when it comes to defending his beliefs.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses vehemently portray the doctrine of the Trinity as pagan in origin and that Christendom, as a whole, has bought the lie of the devil. Along with denying the Trinity is an equally strong denial of the deity of Christ, the deity of the Holy Spirit, the belief in hell, and eternal conscious punishment in hell. | https://carm.org/jehovahs-witnesses-beliefs | 571 | Religion | 2 | en | 0.999985 |
Do you know that the role of Nigeria’s national electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), goes beyond just organizing elections into various political offices in the country?
INEC summarizes its mission this way: “to serve as an independent and effective Electoral Management Body (EMB) committed to the conduct of free, fair and credible elections for sustainable democracy in Nigeria”.
Below are eight major functions of INEC as contained in Section 15, Part 1 of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution (As Amended) and Section 2 of the Electoral Act 2010 (As Amended).
They paint a broader picture of the role INEC is to play.
1. Organise, undertake and supervise all elections to the offices of the President and Vice-President, the Governor and Deputy Governor of a State, and to the membership of the Senate, the House of Representatives and the House of Assembly of each state of the federation;
2. Register political parties in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and Act of the National Assembly;
3. Monitor the organisation and operation of the political parties, including their finances; conventions, congresses, and party primaries.
4. Arrange for the annual examination and auditing of the funds and accounts of political parties, and publish a report on such examination and audit for public information;
READ ALSO: Elections: To Avoid Getting Into Trouble, Remember These Rules
5. Arrange and conduct the registration of persons qualified to vote and prepare, maintain and revise the register of voters for the purpose of any election under this constitution;
6. Monitor political campaigns and provide rules and regulations which shall govern the political parties;
7. Conduct voter and civic education;
8. Promote knowledge of sound democratic election processes; and
Conduct any referendum required to be conducted pursuant to the provision of the 1999 Constitution or any other law or Act of the National Assembly.
The INEC is expected to carry out its functions independently and free from external influence.
INEC also expected to display openness and transparency in all its activities and in its relationship with all stakeholders.
Truthfulness and honesty are expected in all the dealings of the electoral umpire.
Also expected in the affairs of the INEC are credibility and impartiality.
With equity and excellence being part of its core values, the INEC is expected to deliver quality electoral services efficiently and effectively, guided by best international practice and standards. | https://www.channelstv.com/2019/02/07/eight-functions-of-inec-every-nigerian-should-know/?utm_source=TW&utm_medium=ChannelsTV-+AutoPoster&utm_campaign=SNAP%2Bfrom%2BChannels+TelevisionCc | 501 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999996 |
By Sola Ogundipe
Lassa virus is a member of the arenavirus family. The disease was first described in the 1950s, and the virus was identified in 1969, when two missionary nurses died from it in the town of Lassa in Nigeria.
During 2012 and 2013, more than 2900 cases were reported in widespread outbreaks that occurred across many states.
Reports of the outbreak of Lassa Fever in at least 10 states including the FCT leaving 43 dead and at least 100 hospitalized, has necessitated the need for public enlightenment and appropriate information as to protect lives.
Lassa fever is caused by infection with the Lassa virus which is spread by wild multimammate rats (Mastomys species), which shed the virus in their urine and droppings. These are common in rural areas of tropical Africa, and often live in or around homes. Once infected, rodents shed virus throughout their life. They carry the virus in their urine and faeces and live in homes and areas where food is stored.
The disease can be contacted by ingestion of foods and drinks contaminated by the saliva, urine and faeces of infected rats.
Others include catching and preparing infected rats as food, inhaling tiny particles in the air contaminated with infected rat urine or droppings, and direct contact with a sick person’s blood or body fluids, through mucous membranes, like eyes, nose, or mouth.
Persons at risk
Those most at risk include health workers, families and friends of an infected person in the course of feeding, holding and caring for them.
Within three weeks of coming in contact with the virus, symptoms include fever, headache, chills, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, sore throat, backache, and joint pains.
Late symptoms include bleeding from the eyes, ears and nose, bleeding from the mouth and rectum, eye swelling, swelling of the genitals and rashes all over the body that often contain blood. It could progress to coma, shock and death.
Lassa fever is suspected in persons who present with above symptoms with a positive history of being in contact with a suspected or infected person or health worker who had treated either suspected or confirmed infected person.
Antiviral drugs can successfully treat Lassa fever. The earlier a person presents, the better the outcome of treatment.
Prevention and control
The general public is advised to take note of the following:
* Avoid contact between rats and human beings.
* Observe good personal hygiene including hand washing with soap and running water regularly
* Dispose of your waste properly and clean the environment so that rats are not attracted
* Store foods in rat proof containers and cook all foods thoroughly before eating.
* Discourage rodents from entering the house by blocking all possible entry points
* Food manufacturers and handlers should not spread food where rats can have access to it.
* Report any cases of above symptoms or persistent high fever not responding to standard treatment for malaria and typhoid fever to the nearest health centre.
* All fluids from an infected person are extremely dangerous. Health workers are also advised to be at alert, wear personal protective equipment, observe universal basic precautions, nurse suspected cases in isolation and report same to the LGA or Ministry of Health immediately.
For more information,contact the Directorate of Disease Control, Lagos State Ministry of Health on 08037170614, 08023169485.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/01/what-you-should-know-about-lassa-fever/ | 723 | Health | 4 | en | 0.999992 |
I recently received an infographic entitled "10 Common Jobs Which Won't Exist in 20 Years Time." I've reproduced the infographic, which was originally posted on LottoLand, a U.K.-based company that has something to do with gambling, at the end of this post.
The conventional wisdom about jobs that are becoming obsolete. As usual, conventional wisdom is often wrong, so I've listed out the jobs below and provided my own perspective.
infographic is mostly a collection of1. Cashiers -> self-checkout machines
LottoLand: "With the rise of self-checkout machines, it's unlikely to be long until cashier jobs are made redundant entirely. On top of this, the opportunity for online grocery shopping keeps expanding, with big firms such as Amazon now offering the delivery of fresh groceries, as well as their many other services."
My comment: Close but no cigar. Both cashiers and self-checkout machines will be replaced by RFID tags that simply charge your account as you walk out of the store. Alternatively, you'll select goods from a showroom of samples but the actual product will be delivered.
2. Newspaper delivery -> electronic reading devices
LottoLand: "With the popularity of tables and e-readers on the rise, newspapers in their hard copy form are slowly being pushed out of the equation. With the popular gradually moving towards the internet to gain their daily news fix, the need for newspaper delivery services will soon be obsolete."
My comment: No real arguments with this one.
3. Travel agents -> travel websites
LottoLand: "With so many flight comparison websites and holiday package available at our fingertips online, consumers are becoming more and more independent when it comes to planning their trips abroad. The majority of these websites can already do practically everything a travel agent would do for you, and with the speed in which technology is progressing, it's unlikely to be long before travel agents aren't needed at all."
My comment: While travel agents are no longer needed for vanilla travel arrangements, high-end travel (businesspeople and rich tourists) have created a need for highly skilled agents who take care of all the details and ensure their clients don't get stranded or have a "United Airlines" experience.
4. Taxi dispatchers -> mobile apps
LottoLand: "Mobile apps such as Uber and Lyft have allowed us to cut out the need for a middleman when it comes to ordering taxis. Unfortunately for taxi dispatchers, they are the middleman. These apps are now available in locations all over the globe, and their presence is slowly cutting out the need for regular taxi services."
My comment: Not sure whether "taxi dispatcher" was ever a common job but certainly ride-sharing services are changing that part of the transportation industry.
5. Taxi drivers -> self-driving cars
LottoLand: With the recent progress that's been made with self-driving cars, it's safe to assume that taxi drivers will eventually be made redundant, being replaced by cheaper, labor-free modes of transport.
My comment: Self-driving cars (i.e. vehicles without any driver) currently operate in only relatively controlled areas and haven't been well tested in the real-life grit of actual driving conditions. Beyond that, what about cybersecurity? Given the huge holes in the "internet of Things," a hacker could hijack your car and demand you pay a ransom or he'll drive you over a cliff or into a semi-truck.
6. Journalists -> artificial intelligence software
LottoLand: "Advanced developments in artificial intelligence software mean that soon enough even writing won't be a problem for AI, and in some cases it's already been possible to use it for purposes such as creating quarterly reports. This suggests that in the future content could be created with any human input at all."
My comment: ROFLMAO. First, there have been no "advanced developments" in AI software for the past 30 years. The only development has been the ability for AI algorithms to draw on "big data"; otherwise it's the same stuff. Second, creating a quarterly report isn't even tech writing; it's plugging numbers into a template. For an AI program to actually write anything other than doggerel, it would need to be a truly thinking machine. Despite all the hype, we're no closer to that than we were 30 years ago.
7. Social-media expert -> everyday individuals
LottoLand: "The next generation of workers will be growing up with social media integrated into their everyday lives from the get-go. With this in mind, a role solely dedicated to managing and maintaining social media is unlikely to be necessary, as there will simply be common skills rather than a specialized career."
My comment: Yeah, until one of them accidentally tweets a private sext to the corporate account. Social-media "experts" are mostly gatekeepers and they'll always be needed, if only to keep a company from making itself look ridiculous.
8. Telemarketers -> robots
LottoLand: "Whilst you may rejoice that this could finally put a stop to those pesky calls which always seem to occur at the most inconvenient moments possible, unfortunately this is not the case. With recent advances in automated technology, robot services will soon take over these calls and messages eliminating the need for human employment, without eliminating the irritating phone calls.
My comment: It's already almost impossible to find customers through cold-calling. Cold-calling works only when the salesperson makes an immediate personal connection with the prospect. That can't be scripted. Nobody is going to have a conversation with a robot and buy something. The entire idea is beyond stupid.
9. Assembly line workers -> robots
LottoLand: "Moving assembly lines have been an integral part of manufacturing industries ever since Henry Ford introduced the practice back in 1913. Since then, the years have gone by and technology has improved so that this form of work can be done with greater accuracy and reliability by automated machines rather than humans."
My comment: In fact, most manufacturing work is still done by humans because as inexpensive as robots might seem, they're not as cheap as labor in countries that are poor and overpopulated. That's doubly true in the case of forced labor, where companies can literally work a person to death (and replace them with another slave) for less than the cost of the electricity to run a robot.
10. Referees -> video technology
LottoLand: Although this has always been regarded as a well-respected job, it's become more and more common for both players and spectators to question the decision of referees, and instead trust technology to give more accurate results. With this type of technology only getting more advanced, it won't be long until referees are no longer required to monitor games.
My comment: "We've had video replays for decades and those replays often reveal bad calls. There are still referees and there will always be referees."
Here's the original infographic. | https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/10-jobs-that-maybe-wont-exist-in-20-years.html?cid=sf01001&sr_share=twitterLottola | 1,444 | Career | 2 | en | 0.999998 |
Archaeologists find gates of Hell
When researchers are searching for remnants of structures and settlements constructed by ancient peoples they typically focus on areas that are hospitable to human life.
This discovery in Saudi Arabia, according to BGR.com, goes firmly against that notion, with archaeologists revealing the existence of hundreds of stone “gates” situated in and around ancient lava domes, in an area that is little more than a hellish landscape devoid of vegetation and water.
The structures, which measure anywhere from 40 feet to nearly 1,700 feet in length, are crude in their construction, built of rough rocks that have withstood thousands of years of wear and tear. What’s most interesting is that it appears that the lava fields these structures were built upon was still active at the time, with hardened lava appearing to have flowed over some of the gates.
Gates are found almost exclusively in bleak, inhospitable lava fields with scant water or vegetation, places seemingly amongst the most unwelcoming to our species,” David Kennedy of the Western University of Australia, who led the research, wrote. Kennedy noted that the structures “appear to be the oldest man-made structures in the landscape,” and that at the moment “no obvious explanation of their purpose can be discerned.”
The discovery was made using satellite imagery, and the researchers used their birds-eye view to identify nearly 400 of the gates in the same area. Along with the odd walls, other clearly manmade structures were spotted including what appear to be animal traps and wheel-shaped objects that are yet to be identified. The current best guess as to the age of the construction is somewhere in the neighborhood of 9,000 years.
The next step for researchers is launching some kind of expedition to investigate the site and perhaps come up with some kind of an explanation as to why the structures exist and what they were used for. It’s an incredible discovery, but the structures — and their precarious location — are so mysterious that there’s bound to be an even greater story waiting to be told. | http://thenationonlineng.net/archaeologists-find-gates-hell/ | 431 | Religion | 3 | en | 0.99999 |
The blue light from digital devices like smartphones could accelerate blindness, researchers found.
According to a research by the University of Toledo in the U.S., exposure to blue light continuously might cause poisonous molecules to be generated in the eye’s light-sensitive cells and lead to macular degeneration.
Reaserachers said as one of the leading causes of blindness in the U.S., macular degeneration does not lead to total blindness, but can make daily activities difficult.
“It’s no secret that blue light harms our vision by damaging the eye’s retina.
“Our experiments explain how this happens, and we hope this leads to therapies that slow macular degeneration, such as a new kind of eye drop,” said Dr Ajith Karunarathne, an assistant professor in the university’s department of chemistry and biochemistry.
Macular degeneration is caused by the death of photoreceptors, a kind of light-sensitive cells.
Photoreceptor cells need molecules called retinal to sense light and trigger signalling to the brain,
enabling us to see.
“If you shine blue light on retinal, the retinal kills photoreceptor cells as the signalling molecule on the membrane dissolves,” said Kasun Ratnayake, a PhD student at the University of Toledo who was involved in the study.
“Photoreceptor cells do not regenerate in the eye. When they’re dead, they’re dead for good,”
To protect eyes from blue light, researchers advise people to wear sunglasses which filter both UV and blue light outside and avoid using smartphones or tablets in the dark. | https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2018/08/13/blue-light-from-smartphones-could-accelerate-blindness-study/ | 352 | Phones | 4 | en | 0.999834 |
Prof. Ben Nwabueze
By Professor Ben Nwabueze
To us here in Nigeria, a colony is nothing new. The colony of Lagos established by the British in 1861 has familiarised us to it. But our acquaintance with it goes much further back to the ancient colonies established in 7th century B. C by the Greeks on the Mediterranean coastline of Italy, France and Spain, of which Nice, Marseilles and Naples are notable examples; by the Phoenicians, notably Utica (Utique) in 1100 B.C. and Carthage in 813 B.C. (both in present-day Tunisia) and Tripoli in 900 B.C. in present-day Libya; down to the modern colonies founded by the English in the early 17th century AD in North America, – thirteen of them, the first of which, Virginia, was founded in 1607.
The idea underlying a colony, both in antiquity and in modern times, is that of settlement: see British Settlements Act 1887. A colony is a place for the settlement of people “with common or similar language, interests or occupations, living together in close association”, like the farm settlements established in some parts of the Eastern Region of South-East Nigeria by the Government of M.I. Okpara.
A colony as a settlement for people is one integrated idea, it cannot be separated from a settlement; it cannot meaningfully exist divorced from such a settlement, except as a mere idea without existential content. So divorced, it means nothing but an empty word tendentiously employed to beguile or hoodwink the public. The cattle colonies which the Federal Government proposes to establish in every State of the Federation can, therefore, mean nothing other than a place for the settlement of Fulani herdsmen, however much the Federal Government may try to hide this fact, by, for example, calling it “cattle colony”; that is what it is intended to be, and will eventually become, if it is not such from inception.
Its character as a place for the settlement of Fulani herdsmen is implicit in the Agric Minister’s long presentation giving details of the proposed project, as published in the Nigerian Tribune newspaper of 12 January, 2018, which leaves him no room to gainsay it. It is not the idea that cattle is to be left in a colony without a herder or keeper, without someone to feed it, give it water, and keep a watchful and protective eye on it. Rearing cattle or livestock necessarily requires a herder. From what we know, two or more herders will be needed to follow and tend 100 cows; accordingly, 300 herders will be needed to tend 30,000 cows. A colony of 30,000 cows requires 300 herders living in the colony. It may be expected that a herder may have a family, a wife (wives) and children living with him in the colony. We are therefore talking of 300 Fulani herdsmen and their families lodged in the body of a State under the scheme.
Lets listen to what the Agric Minister said:
“We are talking of colonies because 20, 30, or 40 ranchers can share the same colony. A ranch is usually owned by an individual or a company with sometimes very few cattle. Some have more than 200 or 300 cows. In a cattle colony, you could find 30,000 cows owned by different owners.”
“The reason we are designing the colony is that we want to prepare on a large scale, on economy of scale, a place where many owners of cattle can coexist, be fed well, because we can make their feeds. They can get good water to drink. Cows drink a lot of water. We can give them green fodder.”
The Hon. Minister talks only of cattle owners or ranchers, but not at all of herders, who are essentially the cause of the problem. The cattle owners or ranchers are no doubt a part of the problem but the part they play seems somewhat peripheral. The herdsmen are at the centre of the problem.
From the Minister’s presentation, the cattle colony scheme may magnify the problems beyond what they presently are. The scheme is not intended to, and will not, stop the open grazing practice, which is the main cause of the problem. It may well reduce, but will not completely stop it. The Hon. Minister of Agriculture affirms this when he said: “We will tell the herdsmen, if you are passing through a state, you can only go to the colony and stay there, feed your cattle and, when you are moving off, agro-rangers will follow you and make sure you don’t destroy anybody’s farm.” This statement is confusing to say the least. It seems to suggest that a cattle colony as a settlement for herdsmen and their cattle will be combined with the existing practice of herdsmen roaming over the whole country with their cattle, but stopping at a colony to feed them.
THE LEGAL AND POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE SCHEME
The Minister’s emphasis on the process of acquiring land for the colony is misdirected. The issue is not so much about the process for acquiring land, but about the ownership of the land after it is acquired and, more important, about the right to the exclusive use, management and control of the land so acquired. Does the ownership of the land belong to the Federal Government, or to traditional communities, villages and families supposed to have been divested of it? Does the right to the exclusive use, management and control of the land belong to the Federal Government, the cattle owners or the herdsmen?
Perhaps, more worrisome, is the issue of the relationship of the Fulani herdsmen settled on the land and the political authorities in the State – the state government, the local government authorities and the traditional authorities, the town unions, the community development associations, the civil defence and vigilante groups, etc. Will the Fulani herdsmen settled on the land, the cattle owners and their association, the Miyetti Allah, not constitute themselves a “state” within a state?
The deadliest of the implications of the establishment of cattle colonies in every State of the Federation is the religious and cultural implications.
RELGIOUS IMPLICATIONS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CATTLE COLONIES IN EVERY STATE OF THE FEDERATION
In considering the religious implications of establishing cattle colonies in every State of the Federation, it is necessary to recall to mind what Sheikh Gumi wrote about Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto. According to Gumi, the Sardauna’s well-known agenda of consolidating and perpetuating the idea of Northern Nigeria as one united entity “was not borne out of political consideration only”, but was also conceived as “a personal mission” handed down to him by his forbear, Sheikh dan Fodio. The agenda had an accompanying ideology whose object, as articulated by the Sardauna, is to maintain Northern Nigeria as a theocracy ruled by a Moslem claiming to be divinely directed, with utter disdain for democracy, and with the Sharia as the supreme governing law; the non-Moslem minority ethnic groups in the North are to be used as “willing tools”, and the South is to be subjugated and reduced to “a conquered territory”, which is not to be allowed to “have control over their future.” The Sarduana had conceived a kind of jihad, for the pursuit and possible accomplishment of his agenda, an agenda which President Buhari has now vowed to carry on to a “finish”.
President Buhari’s resolve and commitment to pursue the Sardauna’s agenda to a finish was unmistakeably announced in his first major policy statement as President-elect. In a speech delivered before an audience of exclusively prominent Northern Moslem leaders on 2 May, 2015 at Queen Amina Hall, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, he said:
“I charge you to join me as we build a new Northern Nigeria in a generation…..the best investment we can make in the North is not finding oil in the Chad Basin….we will start with one local government in each state until we get to every school in all of Northern Nigeria…..To achieve this, I have secured a Northern rehabilitation fund…..to rebuild the North after the devastation of Boko Haram insurgency…..Join me my brothers and sisters and let us finish the work our forefather, Ahmadu Bello, started.”
The name Shiekh dan Fodio, the Sanduana’s forbear, is worth recalling again. He was a Fulani immigrant in Gobir (now renamed Sokoto), who was accommodated and well-favoured by the King of Gobir. Dan Fodio mobilised an army of Fulani immigrants who, in 1804 – 1808, overran all the Hausa Kingdoms and some other neighbouring communities, dethroned their rulers, installing Fulani emirs in their places, and imposed the Moslem religion on them. Thus was Hausaland together with other conquered lands, islamised, and a caliphate established over Sokoto, with dan Fodio as its Sultan. That was the price the Hausas paid for their hospitality in granting access to grazing land to the Fulani immigrant settlers. With knowledge of the tragic experience of the Hausas in 1804 – 1808, we should not make the tragic mistake of letting history repeat itself in 2018. It should be mentioned that the Fulani immigrant settlers’ ravaging on-slaught failed to subdue the Bornu and Jukun kingdoms, whose rulers have continued to maintain suzerainty over the their terrotiries till date.
The colonisation and islamisation (by conquest) of Hausaland is reminiscent of the colonisation and islamisation (again by conquest) of North Africa by the Arabs in the 7th century A.D. The conquest has been described as “the most amazing feat in military history” : Will Durant, The Story of Civilisation, vol iv, pp. 155
With Persia, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and other countries or cities in the Middle East vanquished and taken over for Islam in A.D. 632-638, the Moslem Arabs next marched on Egypt in the same year (638 A.D.). aided by the defection of the native Egyptians who hated the Greeks and had become disaffected towards the Roman imperial government because of the Monophysite controversy. The invading Arabs succeeded, in siege after siege, in subduing one city after another – Farmah, gateway into the country; Memphis, the former capital; and, finally, in 641 A.D., Alexandria, the new capital, with a loss of 23,000 men (the siege of Alexandria is said to be “perhaps the most arduous” in the annals of Arab conquests.) Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. V. P. 343.
Having conquered Egypt, the Arabs embarked next on the conquest of the rest of North Africa. First Barca and other cities in the province of Cyrenaica, then Tripoli, Sabratha and the magnificent city of Sufetula, were taken in 642-647 A.D. There followed a lull of nearly 20 years because of succession tumults in Arabia. The war was resumed in 665 A.D. with the conquest of more territories. The hero of the renewed fighting was the commander of the Arab troops from 670-675, called Akbah (Okba bin Nafa). It was to him, writes Edward Gibbon, that “the title of conqueror of Africa is more justly due…..He marched from Damascus at the head of ten thousand of the bravest Arabs; and the genuine force of the Moslems were enlarged by the doubtful aid and conversion of many thousand barbarians…..The fearless Akbah plunged into the heart of the country, traversed the wilderness in which his successors erected the splendid capitals of Fez and Morocco, and at length penetrated to the verge of the Atlantic and the great desert….The career, though not the zeal, of Akbah was checked by the prospect of a boundless ocean. He spurred his horse into the waves, and, raising his eyes to heaven, exclaimed with the tone of a fanatic, Great God! If my course were not stopped by this sea, I would still go on, to the unknown kingdoms of the West, preaching the unity of thy holy name, and putting to the sword the rebellious nations who worship any other gods than thee”. Gibbon, ibid, v., pp. 356 – 358.
The conquest was, however, not yet complete. The great metropolis of Africa, Carthage, was yet to be conquered. There was another interruption of many years followed by renewed fighting. Carthage was easily taken but the Arabs were later driven out by imperial forces despatched from Constantinople, (the second capital of the Roman Empire, renamed Istanbul), joined by powerful reinforcements from Sicily and Spain. Returning to the charge in 698, with more numerous armament by sea and land, the Arabs re-took the city, and North Africa was irrecoverably lost to the Roman Empire. In the interval, they had also conquered and Islamised Northern Sudan in the east.
But the Arabs were not yet secure in their conquest. For they were later driven out by the Moors. They retreated to the confines of Egypt, but returned some years later to inflict a crushing defeat on the Moors, taking some 300,000 of them captive, 60,000 of whom were “sold for the profit of the public treasury”: Gibbon, ibid, v, pp. 362. The native Berbers, the indigenous dwellers of the valleys of the Atlas Moutain, had similarly been crushed.
But even if we are able to avert being subjugated and Islamised by Fulani herdsmen militia armed with AK47 guns, we may still meet the same fate by peaceful penetration into our various communities by Fulani herdsmen settled in the cattle colonies through the process known as acculturation. The Fulani settlers will bring to the cattle colonies, as part of their baggage, the religion of Islam, just as the English settlers in the thirteen colonies in North America in 1607 and the years following took with them, as part of their baggage, English law, with its political institutions as well as English customs, conventions and traditions, including the precepts and practices of the Christian religion, just as the early Greek settlers in their colonies on the coastline of Italy, France and Spain took with them, as part of their baggage, Greek culture, tradition and religious precepts and practices. As Will Durant, in his monumental eleven volume treatise, titled The Story of Civilisation, vol. 11, p. 127, tells us, these ancient Greek.
“colonies became greater than their mother cities, and preceded them in the development of wealth and art. The real creators of Greek culture were not the Greeks of what we now call Greece, but those who fled before the conquering Dorians, fought desperately for a foothold on foreign shores, and there, out of their Mycenaean memories and their amazing energy, made the art and science, the philosophy and poetry that, long before Marathon, placed them in the forefront of the Western world.”
One of the products of the Greek colonies on the Italian coastline was Pythagoras (580-500 B.C.), generally acknowledged as the father of both science and philosophy in Europe — his theorems and his theories of numbers and proportion became the foundation of geometry, arithmetic and algebra (the terms mathematics and philosophy were first used by him). He was born of Greek parentage in Samoa, a Greek colony, and lived most of his life in Crotona, another Greek colony. The great Athenian oracle on philosophy and political ideas, Plato (427-347 B.C.), took so much of his ideas from Pythagoras. And the first written code of law in Greek history originated in one of these colonies in 664 B.C.
The same feature characterised the colonies on the Mediterraneous coastline of North Africa settled by the ancient Phoenicians and Greeks of which the largest and best-known were Utica (Utique) and Carthage (both in present-day Tunisia) and Oea (Tripoli in Libya), founded by Phoenicians in 1100 B.C., 813 B.C. and 900 B.C. respectively, and Cyrene, founded in 641 B.C., by Greek settlers (Cyrene together with four other Greek colonies, constitutes the province of Cyrenaica, one of the three provinces of present-day Libya.) Like the English settlers in North America in the 17th century and Greek settlers mentioned earlier, these Phoenicians and Greek settlers in North Africa also took with them to their new settlements, the civilisation, the habits, traditions, the political ideas, governmental institutions and processes they had imbibed in their home countries.
- Nwabueze is the leader of The Patriots.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/01/cattle-colony-buhari-lures-us-deadly-trap/ | 3,600 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999994 |
Rwanda is being offered a sweet deal that is supposed to end up in a win-win deal for the United Kingdom and Rwanda. If you believe it, we have a beautiful Trojan Horse to sell you. Africans are weary of superpowers' sweet promises of subsidy or aid to the developing countries. When you negotiate in an adverse disadvantageous relationship, it always ends up in regrets, exploitation and nightmares.
The reason foreigners and foreign investment into Africa have not lifted the economic plight of the masses is because these are foreign mules used to launder African meager foreign reserves and impoverished Africa. Only the politicians and their business cronies benefit from these Foreign Salvation. So watch out, there is a difference between Political and Economic Independence as Nkrumah taught us.
The transfer of migrants and refugees seeking asylum in the United Kingdom redirected to Rwanda must alert Africans. Africans still have the hearts of accommodation and tolerance for strangers coming to exploit the motherland. Unfortunately, the African heart of kindness has been abused throughout history and recently. There is no free land in Rwanda for refugees relocation. Africans take more refugees than other continents without subsidy or aid from the United Nations. Usually, refugees from neighboring countries.
This has led to resentment and even worse, within Africans themselves. Though Africa welcomes and tolerates refugees, it has gotten out of hand. The ugly xenophobia, tribalism and discrimination we see today existed at a smaller scale before but never to this ugly stage. Some migrants come as destitute before establishing themselves over the indigenous people, not only in Africa but in Europe, Asia and the Americas. There is nothing wrong with Africans' friendliness towards migrants and strangers in our midst. But Africans must watch out based on past abusive experiences.
Once recent immigrants are established, some scorn and climb on those they met in the land for exploitation The oppressors that aid and facilitate their sojourn into Africa also place them in a better situation than the Natives. Usually, immigrants are liberals during their trying times but as they become independent and establish small businesses with generous loans and grants unavailable to Natives, they open businesses generously patronized by the locals. They then gravitate towards the conservatives to protect their interests. There is nothing wrong in political ideologies as long as they are not extreme.
But when you forget where you come from and who prevented you from perishing in the sea since the European explorer Columbus was rescued by American Indians, and later become exploiters of the same Natives. Africans must be cautious because the same refugees accepted into Rwanda today will gain upper hand once helped by Britain to set up in a better situation than the Natives. We see similar circumstances throughout the world where poor citizens are trampled on. This raises the anger, envy and jealousy of the Natives. They wonder why such subsidies, loans and grants were not available to them before strangers.
Another class will be created in Rwanda that would not be different from those created in South Africa. If they have the interest of Rwandans, not British self-interest, they will not be transferring their problems to a poor country that can least take care of it. The incentive to Rwanda will be so short and only to gain initial advantage. But the social and the new class these refugees create will last for generations with a detrimental effect on Rwanda society. The fact that Rwandans are recovering well from their Tutsi-Hutu saga is not an indication that they are ready to take on a bigger problem.
Well, these refugees are not Europeans. They come from Afghanistan, Iran, Middle East and Africa. So they cannot be that exploitative! We have some vivid memories of our brothers and sisters from Asia in East Africa that gave rise to Uganda Dictator, Idi Amin. Most of them claimed to be British citizens, so Idi Amin gave them a choice to either choose Uganda or British citizenship. Of course, they chose the British where their loyalty lied. Forcing Idi Amin to kick them out undiplomatically, became an African embarrassment; unlike the United Kingdom,
It turns out, Britain made it difficult for the Asians to relocate back. If Britain gets the deal with Rwanda and relocates the refugees to Rwanda, another backlash may develop when the migrants start exploiting the Natives with their enhanced class status. This may create another Idi Amin in Rwanda to embarrass Africans as intolerant folks. Africans have enough problems to worry about in each country from Sudan's internal war to xenophobia in South Africa.
There is nothing new about Europeans going around the world spreading “civilization and religious diplomacy. If the American Indians and Africans have to do it all over again, they would let the explorers perish in the sea and Africans would not have nursed Mungo Park back to life after malaria got him on River Niger.
In America, there were Africans before Columbus. Yet, Europeans that came to America have claimed sole right to determine which groups of new immigrants are rejected or accepted.
The overthrow of Gadhafi in Libya created chaos for Arabs/Berbers fighters. Their chaos spilled into the south of Sahara countries that joined fundamentalists Muslim and Boko Haram. They supplied terrorists recruited by African politicians. While countries South of the Sahara are still trying to recover from the intrusive malevolence of the super powers.
Super powers are trying to prevent the emerging nuclear powers from challenging them in the race for equal and retaliatory strikes as the best means of deterrence. Though Africa just wants to be left alone as a member of Non-aligned countries, rare and crucial metals like uranium, cobalt, lithium and other minerals are too precious to leave Africa alone.
Africans must beware of the gift of the Trojan Horse as relocation of refugees into their countries. These super powers even invade small African communities surreptitiously to mine so that they can control the major share of the world's natural resources. The competition for Africa Partition and Amalgamation have not ended. They forced Protectorate on our forefathers, now is the establishment of Military Bases to “protect” us? | https://www.modernghana.com/news/1311959/rwanda-uk-refugees-will-take-over-your-land-with.html | 1,235 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999981 |
More than one and a half centuries after the trans-Atlantic slave trade ended, a new study shows how the brutal treatment of enslaved people has shaped the DNA of their descendants.
The report, which included more than 50,000 people, 30,000 of them with African ancestry, agrees with the historical record about where people were taken from in Africa, and where they were enslaved in the Americas. But it also found some surprises.
For example, the DNA of participants from the United States showed a significant amount of Nigerian ancestry — far more than expected based on the historical records of ships carrying enslaved people directly to the United States from Nigeria.
At first, historians working with the researchers “couldn’t believe the amount of Nigerian ancestry in the U.S.,” said Steven Micheletti, a population geneticist at 23andMe who led the study.
After consulting another historian, the researchers learned that enslaved people were sent from Nigeria to the British Caribbean, and then were further traded into the United States, which could explain the genetic findings, he said.
The study illuminates one of the darkest chapters of world history, in which 12.5 million people were forcibly taken from their homelands in tens of thousands of European ships. It also shows that the historical and genetic records together tell a more layered and intimate story than either could alone. | https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/science/23andme-african-ancestry.html | 279 | Culture | 4 | en | 0.999985 |
Accra – Ghana’s first satellite, dubbed Ghansat-1, was released and deployed into orbit at an altitude of 420 km, local media reported on Friday.
“This followed the successful launch on June 10 into the International Space Station (ISS) by SpaceX, Flight 11 from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, the United States,’’ local media said.
It further said that the process was watched live at All Nations University campus in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital, some 85 km east of the capital.
It said that the satellite was built by students of All Nations University.
“The successful launch of the satellite has put Ghana on the international map as the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to launch academic satellite into space.
“The successful launch also paved way for the country to explore the full benefit of satellite technology,’’ it added.
The satellite has cameras onboard capable of taking pictures of Ghana and providing data on happenings on Ghana’s coastal areas and the environment
Ghana got its independence from Britain in 1957.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/ghana-launches-first-satellite-60-years-independence/ | 244 | Education | 3 | en | 0.99987 |
Professor Chidi Odinkalu
“The judiciary has immense power. In the nature of things, judges cannot be democratically accountable for their decisions. It therefore matters very much that their role should be regarded as legitimate by the public at large.”— Jonathan Sumption, Law in a Time of Crisis, 121 (2021)
FOR a cumulative period of 17 years between 1885 and 1905, Hardinge Giffard – who was better known as Lord Halsbury – served three tenures as Lord Chancellor. In this capacity he earned a reputation for having “appointed many undistinguished men to the Bench because of their political services to the Conservative Party. In 1897, Lord Salisbury, one of the Prime Ministers under whom Lord Halsbury served, advised him that “the judicial salad requires both legal oil and political vinegar; but disastrous effects will follow if due proportion is not observed.” For having so manifestly got the proportions out of kilter, Nigeria could be on course for a date Lord Salisbury’s predicted effects.
Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, is a place where mutual intercourse between lawyers, politicians and judges is both natural and habitual. It is home to judges too numerous to count and host to the headquarters of many court systems, including the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT High Court) as well as of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. The headquarters of the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Court of Justice) is also in Abuja.
The pace of production and reproduction in the courts in Abuja has been rather dizzying recently. On the penultimate day of the past working week, Nigeria’s Supreme Court in a case instituted by the Federal Government against the states issued a decision designed to make it mandatory for local government to be run only by elected officials.This judgment has unlocked a predictable scrum of both political ululation and lamentation but the risk remains that its full benefits are likely to be undermined by the well-established jurisprudence of the Supreme Court in favour of bandit ballots which support the production of leaders at all levels who lack electoral legitimacy.
The day before the Supreme Court judgment, on the approach to the fourth anniversary of Nigeria’s #EndSARs uprising of 2020, the ECOWAS Court of Justice ruled that the conduct of the Nigerian government and its security agencies in their response to the #EndSARS uprising violated the guarantees of “security of person, prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association, duty to investigate human rights violations, and right to effective remedy.” In effect, the Court said that the Nigerian government engaged in a cover-up of the violations that occurred during the #EndSARS protests, especially at the Lekki Tollgate in Lagos.
Weighty as they were, both of these otherwise seminal outcomes were relative non-events in the political and judicial registers of Abuja this past week. On the same day that the ECOWAS Court delivered its judgment in the #EndSARS case to a near empty gallery and the day before the Supreme Court held forth on the destination of local government funds, all roads led to the Supreme Court where the outgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, presided over the inauguration of 22 new Justices of the Court of Appeal and 12 new judges of the FCT High Court.
Many people may have missed the number of Justices of Appeal inaugurated, however. Anyone who followed the reportage would have been forgiven for supposing that there were just two Justices of Appeal sworn in:“Wike’s wife and 21 others”, a reference to the wife of the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike. Also among the new Justices of Appeal is Abdullahi Liman, Kano’s self-appointed federal King-maker. The excess political vinegar in some of these most recent elevations to the Court of Appeal sadly detracts from the tasteful salad among some others. For the sake of their own professional and career advancement in a cynical system, it is best at this time to preserve the anonymity of those deserving ones.
Among the 12 new judges of the FCT High Court, at least seven were family members of serving or living judicial figures and three were family members of persons directly involved in the appointment process. Among these, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, who presided over the appointment, had his daughter-in-law made a judge; the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court made his daughter a judge; and the President of the Court of Appeal got her daughter appointed a high court judge for the second time in three years. In 2021, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State had made the same daughter a judge of the Plateau State High Court.
Responding to these appointments, Access to Justice, a group that monitors judicial independence and accountability in Nigeria pointedly said that “three candidates were ineligible to be considered for such appointments in the first place at the time the vacancies were announced.”
In the days when the Nigerian judiciary was under credible leadership, these judicial inaugurations would have passed almost as a non-event, attended only by select staff of the affected courts and by some members of the families of the new appointees. Following the formal swearing in of the new judges, Abuja was littered with “receptions” convoked by politicians and senior lawyers for many of the new judges.
There was good reason for the politicians to make an obligation of their noisy presence at the swearing in of the new judges. Section 14(2) of Nigeria’s Constitution loudly proclaims that “sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria” but under colour of “rule of law” and judicial independence, the judges have toppled the people and installed themselves as the ones who alone can elect politicians to positions of power and influence in Nigeria. Access to political office now, therefore, is a transaction that begins and rests with political access to judges. Having thus murdered the rule of law, what we now have is rule by judges under which both political power and judicial office have become bereft of legitimacy. The victim is the public good.
The week ended with a report which said that “[J]udges top [the] list of bribe recipients in Nigeria.” Fifteen years ago, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ rights warned that “the courts need the trust of the people in order to maintain their authority and legitimacy. The credibility of the courts must not be weakened by the perception that courts can be influenced by any external pressure.”In Nigeria, this is now a vain hope.
A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at [email protected]
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/07/un-working-group-tells-nigeria-to-unconditionally-release-compensate-nnamdi-kanu/Rule | 1,441 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.99999 |
Coronavirus vaccine may be ready by September, says Oxford scientist
A vaccine against the novel coronavirus may be ready as soon as September, according to a British vaccinologist from Oxford University who is leading one of the most advanced efforts for immunization.
Dr. Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, told The Times on Saturday that she was “80 percent confident” that a vaccine being developed by her team of researchers would work and would become available to the general public in about five months.
Human trials are due to begin in the next two weeks, she indicated.
“I think there’s a high chance that it will work based on other things that we have done with this type of vaccine,” Dr. Gilbert told The Times.”It’s not just a hunch and as every week goes by we have more data to look at. I would go for 80 percent, that’s my personal view.”
The vaccinologist said she and her team are in talks with the British government to begin production as soon as possible. “We don’t want to get to later this year and discover we have a highly effective vaccine and we haven’t got any vaccine to use,” she was quoted as saying.
Over 60 potential vaccine candidates and treatments for coronavirus are being developed in labs around the world, most in pre-clinical stages. At least one vaccine, by US company Moderna, is already being tested in clinical trials which began last month.
In Israel, scientists at the state-funded Migal Galilee Research Institutehave said that their vaccine for coronavirus was on track to be ready for testing within “a few weeks” though it won’t be available for months because of the lengthy and sometimes bureaucratic testing and approval process.
Pharmaceutical and industry experts have warned that a vaccine may take 12-18 months to develop, following clinical trials and safety approvals.
In the US, meanwhile, researchers have opened another safety test of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine, this one using a skin-deep shot instead of the usual deeper jab.
“It’s the most important trial that we’ve ever done,” Dr. John Ervin of the Center for Pharmaceutical Research told The Associated Press afterward. “People are beating down the door to get into this trial.”
READ ALSO: 5G not spreading coronavirus —WHO
The experiment, using a vaccine candidate developed by Inovio Pharmaceuticals, is part of a global hunt for much-needed protection against a virus that has triggered an economic shutdown and forced people indoors as countries try to stem the spread.
Inovio’s study is set to test two doses of its vaccine, code-named INO-4800, in 40 healthy volunteers at the Kansas City research lab and the University of Pennsylvania. Inovio is working with Chinese researchers to also begin a similar study in that country soon.
These early-stage studies are a first step to see if a vaccine appears safe enough for larger tests needed to prove whether it will protect.
“The good thing is we’ve got a bunch of candidates,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US National Institutes of Health’s infectious diseases chief, said during a podcast for the Journal of the American Medical Association Wednesday.
Most of the vaccines under development have the same target: A spike protein that studs the surface of the virus and helps it invade human cells. Yet many work in quite different ways, making it crucial to test different options.
Inovio researchers packaged a section of the virus’ genetic code inside a piece of synthetic DNA. Injected as a vaccine, the cells act as a mini-factory to produce harmless protein copies. The immune system makes protective antibodies against them — primed if the real virus ever comes along.
Inovio research and development chief Kate Broderick likens it to giving the body an FBI wanted poster so it can recognize the enemy.
But after the skin-deep injection, researchers must hold a device over the spot that gives a little electrical zap. The synthetic DNA is large when it comes to penetrating human cells, and the pulse helps the vaccine more easily penetrate and get to work, Broderick said.
DNA vaccines are a new technology. But Inovio has experimental vaccines against other diseases that are made the same way that have passed initial safety testing.
And at least one showed hints that going skin-deep somehow sped the immune system’s development of protective antibodies, University of Pennsylvania’s Dr. Pablo Tebas told The AP. Tebas leads this latest new COVID-19 study.
The NIH’s vaccine candidate, manufactured by Moderna, works similarly, except it uses a type of genetic code called messenger RNA and is injected deeper — into the muscle.
Neither NIH’s nor Inovio’s potential vaccines are made using the actual virus, meaning there’s no chance of getting infected from the vaccines — and it’s possible to make far more quickly than traditional shots.
Separately, an experimental anti-viral drug for patients with severe infections has shown some promise in an early analysis. A new reportpublished in the New England Journal of Medicine tracked 53 people in the US, Europe and Canada who received the Ebola drug remdesevir by US company Gilead Sciences over the course of 10 days. Clinical improvement was observed in 36 of the patients after several weeks.
The coronavirus has affected over 1.7 million people worldwide, with over 100,000 deaths and close to 400,00 recoveries. | https://thenationonlineng.net/coronavirus-vaccine-may-be-ready-by-september-says-oxford-scientist/amp/ | 1,190 | Health | 3 | en | 0.999987 |
One of the consequences of the global pandemic that arrived in the United States last March is that vehicular traffic declined sharply for several months. People either thought twice about traveling or began to work from home as their employers locked the doors to their existing brick-and-mortar locations.
While a vehicle that is not being used as often as usual may not experience the typical amount of wear and tear, that does not mean routine maintenance can be delayed. In fact, while it may seem counterintuitive, vehicles that sit unused for extended lengths of time can see engine components and fluids degrade at a faster rate than if the vehicle were actually being driven regularly. Vehicle service providers should remind their customers that they should continue to stick to a regular maintenance schedule, even if the hours or miles driven have declined in recent months.
Technicians can let their customers know that a general rule of thumb is to try to find time to run a vehicle that has been sitting for as long as a month for at least 10 minutes so that the engine’s essential fluids can circulate through the system, which will allow them to better retain their operational properties. Failure to do so can lead to a whole host of expensive problems, including brittle, leak-prone seals, gaskets and tires, as well as drained batteries and water accumulation in the fuel tank.
Know Your Engine Oil
Today, drivers are encouraged to plan a visit to their local service provider for an oil change after either 5,000 miles have been driven or every six months. Most drivers generally consider the distance traveled when planning their next oil change, but if a vehicle is not being driven as much or is sitting unused for long periods in a garage, driveway or parking lot, remind customers that oil should be changed every six months, regardless of how many miles have been driven in that time.
As technicians know, engine oil will deteriorate faster if it is not being circulated through the engine regularly. This will result in a degradation of the oil’s lubrication and cooling properties, which will affect its overall ability to protect the engine.
While the oil itself is obviously critical in ensuring reliable engine operation, the oil filter is also a key part of the system and needs to be changed regularly. Effective filter media must strike a balance between filtering out the smallest possible particles while creating the least possible resistance to oil flow. Too much of one can hinder the other, resulting in poor performance, inefficiency, and a stack of repair bills.
FRAM® offers three leading oil-filtration technologies, all of which are designed to deliver industry-best levels of engine-protecting performance:
● Extra Guard® filters employ a proprietary fiber- and resin-blended media to provide dirt-trapping efficiency and dirt-holding capacity while offering 10,000 miles of protection.
● Tough Guard® offers a synthetic fiber and cellulose blend to trap dirt without affecting oil flow for 15,000 miles.
● Ultra Synthetic® filters utilize a dual-layer synthetic-blend media that provides up to 20,000 miles of engine protection.
Even under normal driving conditions, one of the most overlooked and underappreciated filters in a vehicle is the cabin air filter. When these filters become clogged, consistent recirculation of air within the vehicle cabin is hard to achieve, which can make defrosting windows a slow, frustrating, and even unsafe process. Cabin air filters also prevent dust, dirt, and exhaust fumes from entering the vehicle. Whether or not the vehicle is used regularly, over time these filters will become clogged and will need to be replaced. This information should be pointed out to the driver when the vehicle is brought in for service.
In this case, FRAM® offers Fresh Breeze® Cabin Air Filter, which is the industry’s only cabin air filter that embeds Arm & Hammer™ baking soda into the filter media. This enables the filter to prevent odors from entering the vehicle while filtering out up to 98% of road dust, pollen particles, allergens, and other contaminants.
While the pandemic has altered the driving routines of many people, it does not mean that these vehicles don’t need to be regularly and properly maintained. Recommending the adherence to a regular maintenance plan and replacing oil filters and cabin air filters at appropriate service intervals still remains the best way to protect vehicles and prevent costly breakdowns and repairs.
FRAM® has been determined to develop high quality oil and air filters for years and has tested combinations of materials and components that will keep your car running cleaner for longer. Explore the benefits of all of the FRAM® oil, air, and cabin filters at fram.com.
This article was sponsored by FRAM. For more information, please visit fram.com. | http://www.underhoodservice.com/video-fuel-pump-filters-current/In | 971 | Car Talk | 2 | en | 0.999996 |
By Rotimi Ojomoyela
Ado-Ekiti- The 156 years old Riemann Hypothesis, the most important problem in Mathematics has been successfully solved by Nigeria Scholar, Dr Opeyemi Enoch.
With this breakthrough, Dr Enoch, who teaches at the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), has become the fourth egghead to resolve one of the seven Millennium Problems in Mathematics.
The Kogi State-born mathematician had, before now, worked on mathematical models and structures for generating electricity from sound, thunder and Oceanic bodies.
A statement in Ado Ekiti yesterday said Dr Enoch presentation of the Proof on November 11, 2015 during the International Conference on Mathematics and Computer Science in Vienna, Austria becomes more symbolic coming on the exact day and month 156 years after the problem was delivered by a German Mathematician in 1859.
The Riemann Zeta Hypothesis is one of the seven Millennium problems set forth by the Clay Mathematics Institute with a million Dollar reward for each solved problem for the past 16 years.
According to the statement, “Dr Enoch first investigated and then established the claims of Riemann. He went on to Consider and to correct the misconceptions that were communicated by Mathematicians in the past generations, thus paving way for his solutions and proofs to be established.
“He also showed how other problems of this kind can be formulated and obtained the matrix that Hilbert and Poly predicted will give these undiscovered solutions. He revealed how these solutions are applicable in cryptography, quantum information science and in quantum computers,” it stated.
Three of the problems had been solved and the prizes given to the winners. This makes it the fourth to be solved of all the seven problems.
Dr Enoch had previously designed a Prototype of a silo for peasant farmers and also discovered a scientific technique for detecting and tracking someone on an evil mission.
Enoch has succeeded in inventing methods by which oil pipelines can be protected from vandalism and he is currently working on Mathematical approaches to Climate Change
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/11/nigerian-scholar-solves-156-year-old-problem-in-maths-gets-one-million-dollars-reward/ | 444 | Education | 3 | en | 0.999937 |
Importance of Making the Right Choice
Just like coding is important in the mobile app development process so is the choice to be made about which platform is to be used. Due to the growth in the mobile market today there are numerous platforms available thus making the decision making process longer and difficult. Especially when someone is launching an app for the first time it is crucial to choose the right platform to avoid hassles later.
This is How You Can Decide Which OS to be Used
The decision of which operating system to be used highly depends on other dependent factors. Here is a quick overview: -
Competitive Factor -
One must first understand that currently in the world market there are four kind of OS in use which is Android, IOS, BlackBerry and Windows. The competition factor in between these four operating systems is high. Out of these the two majorly successful and popular platforms are the IOS and the Android. Most
mobile application development companies prefer sticking amongst the most popular ones.
Paid app or Free app?
The choice of OS also depends on the price point of the mobile app being developed. We all are aware that apps powered by IOS have a high cost involved with it. Hence, most mobile application developer will use this platform if it is a paid application. If the focus of the entrepreneur is towards enormous downloads at a free cost through advertisements then Android is the best choice.
Need for Customizations-
This is one major factor to be considered while choosing the platform for a mobile app. If the mobile app requires a high customization then it is better to use Android as Android SDK has numerous inbuilt libraries and templates available for such high scale custom apps. IOS on the other hand goes though a lot of complex code based work when high end customizations are needed.
If the mobile app developed is targeting to reach out to the mass then one must go for Google's Android. As per industry's statistics Android today experiences major download rates than IOS. It is said almost 84.7% of the market share is held by Android while IOS is at a lower number of 13.1%.
If one wishes the app to be made be used by global users then there is no second thought but to use IOS as this platform has an universal audience attached with it.
Ideally the mobile app developer can guide you on the choosing process by carefully analyzing the nature and scope of the mobile app one desires to develop and release. | http://www.sooperarticles.com/communications-articles/mobile-applications-articles/choosing-os-your-mobile-app-development-1479444.html | 500 | Business | 2 | en | 0.999994 |
,The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, says there are now 600 confirmed cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Africa in 34 countries.
The UN health agency disclosed this in its regional official twitter account @WHOAFRO.
According to WHO, there has been 17 COVID-19-related deaths as at Thursday.
“Africa has more than 600 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 34 countries, compared with 147 cases one week ago.
“While Africa can learn from the experiences of other countries, the response must be adapted to the context of the continent.’’
The agency said it would continue to support countries with surveillance, diagnostics and treatment.
“Take care while travelling to stop the spread of germs and protect yourself against COVID-19.
“Avoid unprotected close contact with anyone developing cold or flu-like symptoms.
“Immediately seek medical care if you have fever, cough and difficulty in breathing,’’ it advised
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/03/34-countries-in-africa-report-covid-19-cases-who/ | 240 | Health | 2 | en | 0.999983 |
People who are the happiest don’t have the most money or aren’t the most attractive, but they all share one thing in common:
Happy people practice gratitude every day.
While this may seem simple enough, our minds tend to focus on what we’re missing out on instead of being grateful for everything we already have. Our generation has it even harder because we are living in a social world where we are constantly connected. It’s easy to feel like you don’t have enough when everyone on your social feed appears to be doing cooler things than you.
Good news: there are ways to practice gratitude each day to live your best life. Here’s how.
Starting your day with five minutes of silence has been proven to change your brain chemistry, making you more resilient against life’s hardships. However, there are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to meditation. I used to think you had to think about absolutely nothing (which is pretty much impossible) during your practice. But really, meditation is all about being present and not focusing on what you’re going to have for dinner or that you forgot to pick up something at the grocery store. The purpose of meditation is to take time for yourself to set an intention for your day and be grateful in that moment.
2. Create a gratitude journal
A gratitude journal is different than a regular journal because it makes you focus on only the good stuff rather than venting about your worries or writing down everything that went wrong in the day. Each day, you should write down at least three things that you’re grateful for. By doing this, you can actually rewire your brain to be happier. It’s kind of like the “camera effect.” When you have a camera, you’re constantly looking for interesting things to capture. Instead of hating the graffiti, you might shift your way of thinking and try to make it aesthetically pleasing in your frame. That’s how the gratitude journal works for your disposition. Instead of focusing on pessimistic thoughts, you’re going about your day looking for positive things to add to your gratitude journal.
3. Surround yourself with positive people
Reflect on your mood and outlook, after you spend time with certain friends. Do you feel inspired and connected or do you feel drained and dissatisfied? If it’s the latter, you might want to reevaluate your friendship. We only get one life to live, so why waste any time surrounding yourself with negative influences? It’s not easy to cut certain people from your life, but it’s even worse to feel unhappy because of the people you’re surrounded by. By positioning yourself around inspirational and positive people, you’re setting yourself up for a more sunny outlook and successful future.
4. Talk back to your negativity
You know that inner dialogue that says you’re not smart enough, pretty enough, or cool enough? While those nagging thoughts are completely normal, the trick is to talk back to them with positive affirmations so they don’t get in the way of your happiness. It may seem silly at first, but it works, trust me. If you catch your mind going down a dark rabbit hole, counter it with logic and positivity. It’s OK to have bad thoughts, but what’s more important is how you react to them and to make sure they don’t take over your life.
5. Focus more on your community and others than yourself
When you’re down in the dumps, it’s easy to get lost in “me, me, me,” which can lead to self-pity and depression. However, when you take yourself out of the equation, you’ll start to feel happier because you’re helping other people. Try volunteering, writing cards to loved ones, or cooking dinner for a friend in need.
If you practice gratitude each day, you’ll slowly start to see a positive change in your disposition and overall outlook on life. It will take discipline and self-control, but really, aren’t things you work hardest for worth it in the end?
—Culled from msn lifestyle | http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2013/08/01/icpc-docks-alleged-operator-of-fake-university/http://greenbiro.com/icpc-arraigns-operator-of-illegal-university-commonwealth-university-belize-in-abuja/The | 882 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999998 |
United Nations – Africa’s population is expected to rise from the current 1 billion people to 3.6 billion by 2100, a report released on Wednesday by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) says.
The report, which relied on recent estimates by UN Population Division, states that Nigeria’s population will increase from 390 million in 2050 to 730 million by 2100.
Nigeria will be the third most populous country in the world by 2100, up from its current seventh position.
The report predicts a global population of 9.3 billion in 2050, an increase over earlier figures, and more than 10 billion people by the end of this century.
Much of this increase is expected to come from high fertility countries, which comprises 39 in Africa, nine in Asia, six in Oceania and four in Latin America, the report says.
“The State of the World Population 2011’’ UNFPA report was published ahead of Oct. 31, which the UN says will mark the birth of the seventh billionth human being into the world.
The UN Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that seven countries – China, India, U.S, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan and Nigeria,– accounts for half of world current seven billion population.
The 126-page UNFPA report notes that Africa’s population which is growing by 2.3 per cent a year, is more than double of Asia’s one per cent.
Asia remains the most populous major area in the world in the 21st century.
The report warns that demographic pressure posed mighty challenges for easing poverty and conserving the environment.
“This report makes the case that with planning and right investments in people now… our world of 7 billion and beyond can have thriving, sustainable cities, productive labour forces … and youth populations that contribute to the well being of economies and societies,’’ it says.
The report highlighted the challenges and opportunities individuals would confront- in trying to “build better lives for themselves, their families, communities and nations.’’
People in nine countries were profiled including: Nigeria, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, India, Mexico, Mozambique and the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia.
UNFPA’s executive director and Nigeria’s former health minister Babatunde Osotimehin said: “Our record population can be viewed in many ways as a success for humanity — people are living longer, healthier lives.
“How did we become so many? How large a number can our Earth sustain? These are important questions, but perhaps not the right ones for our times.
“When we look only at the big number, we risk being overwhelmed and losing sight of new opportunities to make life better for everyone in the future,” Osotimehin said. (NAN)
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/10/nigerias-population-moves-to-390m-in-2050-as-africa-population-gets-to-3-6-bn/ | 617 | Politics | 3 | en | 0.999992 |
Obiano acknowledging cheers from his supporters at a recent function in the state
By Clifford Ndujihe
ALTHOUGH old Anambra, as a state, was created in 1976 from the then East Central State by General Murtala Mohammed, the current geographical area known as Anambra State was created on August 27, 1991 by the General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida military regime. The state retained the name ‘Anambra’ but lost the somewhat developed Enugu capital city to Enugu State. Awka became its new capital.
Thus, Anambra otherwise known as “The Light of The Nation” began its journey into statehood as a rural state.
Anambra is rich in natural gas, crude oil, bauxite, ceramics and almost 100 percent arable soil but most of its natural resources for a long time remained largely untapped. With the avalanche of human and natural resources, Anambra began on a promising note but not without hitches.
In the early days of the state, someone driving along the Enugu-Onitsha Express-way could pass Awka, the state capital and enter Enugu State without knowing he had exited Anambra State. Apart from the rusty Awka temporary site of the then Anambra State University of Science and Technology, ASUTECH, there were little or no landmark developments. There was no stadium or a good event centre. There were few tarred roads. The state was full of wealthy and prominent individuals but poor as a corporate entity.
Transformation into a viable state
However, 25 years after, Anambra has emerged from the status of a rural state to one of the 10 best states in the country. Apart from the Onitsha fly-over, three other fly-over highways have been built in the last two years. Many health institutions have been built. Now, Anambra is among the few viable states in Nigeria coping with the debilitating economic downturn in terms of internally generated revenue. In this league are Lagos State with N268.22bn IGR in 2015, Riivers State (N82.10bn), Delta State (N40.80bn), Ogun State (N34.59bn), Edo state (N19.11bn), Enugu (N18.08bn), Oyo (N15.66 bn), Anambra (N14.793bn), Akwa Ibom (N14.791bn) and Kano (N13.611bn).
Anambra has the lowest poverty rate in the country and in the last 10 years has been among the top five states in terms of number of students taking school certificate and university entry examinations.
Navy Captain Joseph Abulu, the first military administrator, nursed the baby state for five months at the beginning. He, it was, who, renamed ASUTECH as Nnamdi Azikiwe University before it was made a federal institution. He handed over to the first civilian governor, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, who was in the saddle between January 1992 to November 1993 when the late General Sani Abacha took over the rulership of the country and aborted the fledgling Third Republic. Thereafter, a number of military administrators were in the saddle, namely, Dabo Aliyu, Mike Attah, Rufai and Emmanuel Ukaegbu, who handed over to Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju on May 29, 1999 at the dawn of the Fourth Republic when civil rule returned.
However, the state’s growth remained stunted on account of neglect and bad governance, worsened by the menace of godfatherism, which en-snarled and shackled the Mbadinuju administration.
Freedom at last
Anambra started seeing a ray of light at the end of the dark tunnel during the Dr Chris Ngige three-year administration. First, he had to disentangle himself from the murderous hold of godfathers, who held the state at the economic jugular. But it was not easy. In the political melee, Ngige became the first governor to be abducted in Nigeria after he failed to honour agreements with his godfathers, who catapulted him to power.
The scenario made observers to wonder how a state that produced the likes of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme Chief Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, Chief Nwafor Orizu, Dim Chukwue, Dr Chuba Okadigbo, Professor Chinua Achebe, Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Professor Humphrey Nwobu Nwosu, Professor Kenneth Dike, Professor Ben Enwonwu, Dr. Pius Okigbo, Chief Jerome Udoji, Professor Dora Akunyili, Cardinal Francis Arinze, Cyprian Ekwensi, Philip Emeagwali, Prof Chike Obi, Chief Osita Osadebe and Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo among others, could descend so low in terms of governance and development.
The tide was to change. After Ngige ditched his godfathers, he channelled the humongous funds that would have been used to ‘service’ godfathers to developmental projects especially roads, which opened up many parts of the state especially in Anambra Central.
When Ngige’s election was annulled in 2006, Mr Peter Obi, who took over from him, continued all the projects started by Ngige and concluded them. He also embarked on numerous projects of his own on roads, healthcare, education, industrialisation; provision of social amenities and empowerment of the citizenry.
He paid the backlog of salaries and pension arrears owed workers and pensioners in the state. By the time he was leaving office in 2014, Obi had made Anambra oil producing state, attracted a host of industries to the state, created positive outlook for the state’s finances and saved a lot of money, which he handed over to his successor, Chief Willie Obiano.
To address the problems arising from rapid urbanisation Governor Obi, with the assistance of the UN-HABITAT produced a 20-year structural plan (2009–2028) for three major cities in the state, Onitsha, Nnewi and Awka Capital Territory to restore urban planning and guide their growth into the future.
The plans contain policies and proposals for land use, city beautification, road infrastructure, industrial development, housing, waste disposal, water supply, health and educational facilities to turn the cities in Anambra into successful urban areas to generate employment, wealth and provide high living standards for residents.
Obiano’s rapid approach
Like his two immediate predecessors, Chief Obiano is also in a hurry to take Anambra to the next level. In two years, he has built massively on the foundation laid by his predecessors.
Over the last two decades the rural/urban exodus has caused a shift, making Anambra a highly urbanized state With 62 per cent of Anambra population living in urban areas, Obiano continued with measures to meet the attendant socio-economic and environmental needs of the state.. In October 2015, he signed a memorandum of understanding with Galway modular housing company, Affordable Building Concepts International for 10,000 housing units in the State.
Arguably, Anambra has the best intra-city and intra-town road networks in the country.
On assumption of office, Governor Obiano made agriculture his main trust; about two months into the life of his administration, he launched the Agricultural Revolution in Nteje, Oyi Local Government Area. The action has made Anambra State to become an exporter of farm produce to Europe.
The state has also flooded the market with a wholly indigenous brand of rice known as Anambra Rice which is competing favourably with other brands in the market.
So far, the state government has attracted $150m from Coscharis Farms Project in Anaku, $50m from NOVTEC Farms Ltd in Ndikelionwu, $160m from Joseph Agro Ltd rice project in Omor, $220m from Ekcel Farms tomato production farm in Omasi and $50m from the Songhai/Delfarms integrated organic farm project in Igbariam. There are also Grains & Silos with $40m investment in storage facilities, Lynden Farms with the $61m poultry farm in Igbariam and Tricity Integrated Farms with $11.4m ultra-modern abattoir in Awka.
Among others, Governor Obiano said his objective is to have a fully developed Oil and Gas sector by 2018 in Anambra State and he intends to achieve this through three broad areas of intervention – policy formulation and infrastructure development, private sector participation and community re-orientation.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/anambra-25-challenges-gains-tasks-anambra-people/ | 1,873 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.99962 |
A VIN decoder service provides detailed information about a vehicle's history, specifications, and ownership based on its unique 17-character identifier. This service is often utilized by individuals looking to purchase a used car, as it can offer insights into potential issues such as previous accidents, odometer rollbacks, recalls, and more. Auto dealerships, insurance companies, and law enforcement agencies also frequently use VIN lookup services for various purposes, ranging from fraud prevention to vehicle identification. The service aggregates data from multiple sources, including governmental databases, to provide a comprehensive report that aids in making informed decisions.
We support the following makers:
What is structure of Vehicle Identification Number?
Position 1 | 1 | Shows where the vehicle was built (1 - means United States) |
2-3 | FT | Designated the vehicle manufacturer (F - means Ford Inc.) |
4-8 | GHDLZ | Denotes the vehicle's brand, engine size, and type |
9 | B | Vehicle Security Code |
10 | G | Shows Vehicle Year |
11 | K | Indicates which plant assembled the vehicle |
12-17 | 456923 | Displays the serial number of the vehicle |
A Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) is more than just a random series of 17 alphanumeric characters stamped onto a vehicle; it is essentially the DNA of a car. A VIN Decoder Service acts as the Rosetta Stone for vehicle identification, allowing individuals and businesses to unlock detailed information about a car's make, model, year, location of manufacture, and much more. But how exactly does a VIN decoder service work, and why is it important?
What is a VIN?
A VIN is a unique code assigned to every motor vehicle when it's manufactured. This number serves as a fingerprint for the vehicle, providing important information such as the manufacturer, place of origin, and year of production. Traditionally found on the dashboard near the windshield or inside the driver's side door jamb, the VIN can also appear in vehicle documents such as the title, registration, and insurance policy.The Anatomy of a VIN
While seemingly cryptic, each character in a VIN has a specific meaning. For instance, the first character often signifies the country where the vehicle was manufactured, while other characters might indicate the car's type, engine size, and series. Given its complexity, decoding a VIN manually can be a tedious and error-prone process. This is where VIN decoder services come into play.How Does a VIN Decoder Work?
A VIN Decoder takes the 17-character VIN and breaks it down into digestible pieces of information. These services access a rich database that cross-references the VIN with a plethora of details, which can include:- Make and Model
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Law enforcement agencies and other regulatory bodies utilize VIN decoding for investigations and compliance checks, making it a critical tool for ensuring road safety and adherence to automotive regulations.A VIN Decoder service demystifies the complex string of characters that make up a vehicle's identification number, providing a gateway to essential information. Whether you're a consumer in search of a reliable used car, a dealership aiming for transparent business practices, or a regulatory agency upholding the law, VIN decoder services offer an indispensable resource for decoding the DNA of any vehicle. | https://www.vindecoderz.com/ | 825 | Car Talk | 2 | en | 0.999912 |
By Naomi Uzor
Vice Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University, Prof. Ibrahim Garba, has said that there are about 40 different kinds of solid minerals and precious metals buried in Nigerian soil waiting to be exploited. The commercial value of Nigeria’s solid minerals has been estimated to run into hundreds of trillions of dollars, with 70 per cent of these buried in the bowels of Northern Nigeria. The Professor stated this in his paper presentation titled; Mineral Resources and Mining in Nigeria: Investment Opportunities and Challenges’ at a seminar during the 37th Kaduna International Trade Fair.
He said If Nigerians were taking data seriously; we would have built a database, where we have authentic information, noting that the failure of Nigeria, since independence in 1960, to put in place a structure that will make the benefits of the exploitation of solid minerals available to all Nigerians has been the bane of the nation. At the moment, he stressed, mining of minerals in Nigeria accounts for only 0.3 per cent of its GDP, due to the influence of oil resources. The domestic mining industry is underdeveloped; leading to Nigeria having to import commodities it could produce domestically, such as salt or iron sheets and billets.
According to him, solid mineral deposits are scattered all over Nigeria, with more deposits in certain areas than others. Over 40 million tonnes of talc deposits have been identified in Niger, Osun, Kogi, Ogun and Kaduna states. There are huge deposits of coal ranging from bituminous to lignite in the Anambra Basin of South-Eastern Nigeria.
He noted that the low activity in the solid mineral sector is not yielding the desired financial benefit as there are no records of payment of taxes and royalty to the government. Nigeria is losing lots of resources from untapped mineral deposit as well as from the little that is being mined mostly by illegal miners who smuggle the products out of the country.
“Despite the fact that Gold and Barites were being mined across the nation, there is no record to show that these minerals are among the mined or exported minerals. Further finding shows that barites are mined in Benue and Nasarawa states, despite high activities of miners there are no record of royalty payments.
“From the available records of the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, there was no evidence of royalty payment on these exported minerals. The Nigeria Minerals and Mining Act 2007 requires that any exporter of solid minerals must request for permit to export minerals. But in defiance to the Act, there was no available evidence of request for permit or approval to export minerals by the companies,” he stated.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/40-solid-minerals-awaiting-development-says-abu-v-c/ | 557 | Business | 2 | en | 0.999981 |
Nobody provided enabling an environment for African billionaires when they establish schools, factories or manufacturing plants in the middle of nowhere and in the face of discrimination against all odds outside Africa. More Africans could have made it at home but for greed, self-hatred, pulling down one another and distaste for locally-made products and services for preferences encouraged by foreign fraud and deceptive trade practices.
"Go back" is not new as it has been used against Irish, Polish, Jews in Europe and even German socialists in early America. But the only people it is still stuck with are Africans or people of color no matter how many generations have lived in Europe and the Americas. Our looters and those who joined in putting down their own countries are put on notice that you and your family even if you escape from home, would remain second class citizens, killed on the street like dogs but given due process as the last rite in a court of law; regardless of how highly placed or how much money you stashed in their banks.
On the other hand, if foreigners are so rich, why are they so mean spirited, afraid to compete on an equal playing field and scared of their shadows? But for the rich environment and good connections, most were lucky to be born into, they would have degenerated into wretchedness worse than Africans. Rich communities save many of us while poor environment retards the development of the gifted but unfortunate, without the opportunity to use God-given talents.
It does not mean that since a man is born in poverty, wretchedness is born in him. Talents come from unexpected diversified communities, even from the most deprived and environmental dumps. If foreigners were not in our communities sucking every living cell out of life in Africa, acquiring cheap resources and free labor to build their empires, there would be no need for a few of us to get out in order to make it. Meaning: If You Were Not Here We Will Not Be There.
If Africans wretched their countries hoping to escape to greener pastures, you have no place to hide or run to. Those that returned found our countries worse than how we left it, different to countries built by Herbert Macauley, Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ernest Ekoli, Obafemi Awolowo, Albert Luthuli or Jomo Kenyatta. Those that want to return are stuck as economic refugees because of the wishful thinking of ingrates expecting to create paradise outside Africa.
Unlike Independence fighters that returned home to wrestle in order to make Africa a better place. By their labor, most of us could not wait to get back home. If you do not come back when you finish your studies, folks would say: you wan kill your mama. Later, Military and vagabonds in power turned Africa into forsaken countries. These vagabonds became foreign cronies (costoma dada ni) patronizing foreign institutions, Structural Adjustment, and Devaluations for plundering our resources, waste talents and vandalized Africa into poverty never imagined.
Yet, we celebrate fake success at home or abroad where you are constantly told to "go back" and rescue your ancestral countries? Those on the land of American Indians before Columbus are told to "go back" by immigrants that met them there. A reminder that none of us, Africans at home or in Diaspora will be respected anywhere in the world until one or more African communities can be successfully ruled and managed in their own countries economically and politically. Your acquired accents, education and hospitals can't save you from hell – “Go Back”!
Stokely Carmichael reminded us that West Indian countries were not built to be self-sufficient or successful but used as a sugar cane plantation. It is up to us to change Africa into a sustainable place that can trade within and negotiate fair and equal trade with the rest of the world. We cannot cry over the ways others protect their self-interest anywhere if we do not protect assets and talents at home. There is nothing wrong with loving yourself or your own people as others do, but everything wrong with self-hating and justifying their policies and insults against you.
Therefore when Africans celebrate their riches at home on social media and brag about just landing from “civilized climes”; you may want to know at whose expense they are celebrating. Indeed, some of these Africans would drive a hot shaft through their mothers and throw her under the bus like their colleagues at home to make money and gain fame. Some of them blame “natives of color” and Africans victims in Diaspora for their own predicament.
Even worse are Africans and minorities who champion, excuse and echo the derogatory slurs of their tormentors to elevate themselves, wishing that they will be accepted or accommodated. You can call them wannabe, traitors or Uncle Tom but they do it for selfish interest since they have lost all respect for one another. When Africans in Italy and Alberta Canada were elected, did you check out the platform of the parties that gave them the “opportunity”?
These are extreme right-wing parties looking for minorities to enforce hatred they have for Africans and minorities like them. History books and Libya exposed those Africans allowed to discipline other African slaves. They were brutal and worse than the “Massa” of the slaves.
Nevertheless, self-aggrandizing in the midst of poverty is nauseating. It is a curse to get high in the midst of want. Those of us that are lucky enough to “jam luck” with or without blood and sweat, must invest our wealth in productive endeavors that bring returns not only for our families but to our communities. Enough celebration on depreciating vanities. It does not profit a man to gain riches while leaving his people poorer. Invest that money in progressive ventures.
There are some honest hard-working middle-class Africans like Godwin Maduka, the Texas-based anesthesiologist that turned a little village in Igbo land around in Nigeria. He has a place to proudly call home. So if you are ridiculed and told to “go back” to your impoverished invested ancestral homes, show them the village you come from. Abi you dey shame?
The best way to illustrate the familiar “go back” to your ancestral land is to look at Libya and Congo as more recent cases. They bombed the heck out of Libya and dislocated the “paradise” Libyans now realized they had under Gadhafi. Subsidized education, health care, housing, first car, and first weddings. Libyans gave all these up for "democracy and freedom". Gadhafi was humiliated to death by his own people just as Lumumba in Congo. Na democracy we go chop?
When Libya became engulfed in a civil war, even guest workers and non-Libyans from neighboring Arab and African countries lost all their contracts and means of survival. As Libyans fled the dear country and tried to cross into Europe and the Americas followed by other Arabs and Africans, you guess it right. They were told to “go back” to their countries. The plight of Africans drowning in the sea, dying in the desert and enslaved; another story.
The point remains that if they were not in our Continent to exploit, destroy and subjugate people they consider disposable, there was no reason so many people would have fled their homelands to seek democracy and freedom branded in their countries as their human right. These are the same people that denied the same democratic rights for their minorities to vote. Anyway and anyhow they could: to suppress their votes.
African countries head the poverty list with most children used to beg for arms and foreign aid. We need to wake up and help ourselves, confront our exploiters and negotiate terms of trade as a United Continent, not play up as the small colonial divided ethnic nations. Apoda, who cares about which foreign hospital you die in or the foreign school your children graduated from when the poverty you created to get the money at home cries out loud to your Massa? | https://www.modernghana.com/news/945919/go-back-to-fix-your-wretched-communities-if-so-smart-and-ri.html | 1,666 | Politics | 2 | en | 0.999994 |
Image credit: New York Times
As Christianity continues to be one of the world’s most practiced religions, certain countries stand out for their sheer number of churches
When it comes to the expression of faith and spirituality, few things are as significant as places of worship. Churches, in particular, have played a central role in the spiritual lives of millions worldwide.
These sacred spaces not only serve as venues for worship but also act as pillars of community life, education, and social support. As Christianity continues to be one of the world’s most practiced religions, certain countries stand out for their sheer number of churches.
This article explores the top 10 countries with the highest number of churches, per ratings from Bscholarly, delving into the historical, cultural, and social factors that have led to their proliferation.
1. Vatican City
While Vatican City is the smallest country in Europe by population, it holds a unique distinction: it boasts the highest concentration of churches. With around 1,700 churches, Vatican City has more churches per capita than any other country. This small, yet powerful state, located within Rome, Italy, is home to about 1,000 residents and hosts St. Peter’s Basilica, one of the holiest sites for Catholics worldwide.
Rwanda, with a Christian population of 93.6%, is predominantly Roman Catholic. Despite being one of Africa’s smallest and most densely populated countries, it has an estimated population of 11 million people, with around 1 million identifying as Christians. The country’s rich history and significant Christian presence have earned it the nickname “the Jerusalem of Africa” by some Westerners, particularly after the 1967 conflict between Christians and Muslims.
Malawi stands out with the highest number of churches per capita, with one church for every 132 people. The country has approximately 10,000 churches spread across its territory, reflecting its deep-rooted Christian heritage. Many of these churches date back to colonial times when missionaries established numerous Catholic churches and chapels independently of government support. Before gaining independence from Britain in 1964, Malawi was known as Nyasaland, meaning “the land of lakes.”
Christianity is the dominant religion in Angola, with 95% of the population identifying as Christians. The majority are Roman Catholics, while the rest belong to various Protestant denominations like Methodists, Congregationalists, and Baptists. Christian missionaries played a crucial role in spreading Christianity across Angola, also contributing to the country’s social development through initiatives like free medical care and education.
Romania, located in Southeastern Europe with Bucharest as its capital, is home to approximately 1,800 churches. The country’s cultural and ethnic identity is deeply influenced by Roman history, shaped by its strategic location along major migration routes in Europe. The Orthodox Church, one of the three major Christian denominations, is predominant in Romania, where about 200 million people adhere to Orthodox Christianity.
Italy, with a population of 60.6 million, is the fourth-largest economy in Europe and a founding member of the European Union. It has a rich cultural heritage, reflected in its art and architecture, with masterpieces like Michelangelo’s David, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, and Brunelleschi’s Duomo in Florence. Italy is also home to a significant number of churches, a testament to its deep-rooted Christian traditions.
Poland, situated in Central Europe with a population of 38.5 million, is home to over 10,000 churches. The country’s history is steeped in Catholic tradition, which plays a central role in Polish culture and identity. Polish cuisine, influenced by Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and German culinary traditions, reflects the country’s rich heritage, with dishes passed down through generations.
Spain is a country with a deep European heritage, influenced by significant historical events such as the discovery of the Americas and its neutral stance during the world wars. The Catholic Church has long played a pivotal role in Spanish history, influencing both political and social landscapes. The Church in Spain grew as new members shared their faith with their communities, further solidifying its influence.
Portugal, one of Europe’s most religious countries, has a long-standing Christian heritage, with 90% of its population identifying as Catholic. Despite its relatively small size, Portugal maintains strong ties with religious institutions, offering benefits such as tax rebates for clergy. The Catholic faith continues to be a significant aspect of Portuguese society.
10. São Tomé and Príncipe
The small island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe, located in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of Central Africa, was settled in the 15th century by Portuguese explorers. The islands became a crucial hub for the African slave trade, and today, Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion, with 55.7% of the population identifying as Catholic, a legacy of Portuguese colonialism.
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof. | https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/09/top-10-countries-with-highest-number-of-churches-2024/?fbclid=IwY2xjawFBbrxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHTDDTuF6BWle2lCaywG1NQi6jx8FJl_iBpu1atcOHYYr_xcc5AqQcHZghw_aem_XPX8X7O6eZBDkQvByBzuHQwhat | 1,037 | Religion | 3 | en | 0.999969 |
Coronavirus patients in South Korea are now testing positive for the virus a second time, health officials are warning, following similar reports in other countries.
Bloomberg reported Thursday that the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said in a statement announcing a formal investigation that dozens of patients have retested positive for the disease.
“While we are putting more weight on reactivation as the possible cause, we are conducting a comprehensive study on this,” KCDC Director-General Jeong Eun-kyeong said, according to Bloomberg. “There have been many cases when a patient during treatment will test negative one day and positive another.”
NPR reported late last month that similar cases were also discovered in Wuhan, China, where the virus is believed to have originated. Health officials there say that some people who tested positive weeks ago for the virus have tested positive again, including two doctors treating patients with the virus.
NPR reported that a false positive is possible if a test picks up residual virus from the initial infection.
Japan in February reported its first case of a person testing positive twice for the disease. Some health officials have warned that the virus could remain dormant in the body before reaching the lungs and causing havoc.
“Once you have the infection, it could remain dormant with minimal symptoms,” New York University microbiology and pathology professor Philip Tierno Jr. told Reuters. “And then you can get an exacerbation if it finds its way into the lungs.”
For similar reasons, one of the doctors who told NPR they experienced a second positive coronavirus test after a recovery questioned China’s decision to not include asymptomatic carriers in its official case count. China is also not counting new cases found in people who previously had the virus in its official count, NPR noted.
“I have no idea why the authorities choose not to count [asymptomatic] cases in the official case count. I am baffled,” the doctor reportedly said.
Updated at 10:22 a.m. | https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/491950-Coronavirus-patients-testing-positive-again-after-recovery-report?amp&__twitter_impression=true | 427 | Health | 2 | en | 0.999945 |
EVERY so often someone asks me: “What’s your favorite country, other than your own?”
I’ve always had the same answer: Taiwan. “Taiwan? Why Taiwan?” people ask.
Very simple: Because Taiwan is a barren rock in a typhoon-laden sea with no natural resources to live off of — it even has to import sand and gravel from China for construction — yet it has the fourth-largest financial reserves in the world. Because rather than digging in the ground and mining whatever comes up, Taiwan has mined its 23 million people, their talent, energy and intelligence — men and women. I always tell my friends in Taiwan: “You’re the luckiest people in the world. How did you get so lucky? You have no oil, no iron ore, no forests, no diamonds, no gold, just a few small deposits of coal and natural gas — and because of that you developed the habits and culture of honing your people’s skills, which turns out to be the most valuable and only truly renewable resource in the world today. How did you get so lucky?”
That, at least, was my gut instinct. But now we have proof.
A team from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or O.E.C.D., has just come out with a fascinating little study mapping the correlation between performance on the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, exam — which every two years tests math, science and reading comprehension skills of 15-year-olds in 65 countries — and the total earnings on natural resources as a percentage of G.D.P. for each participating country. In short, how well do your high school kids do on math compared with how much oil you pump or how many diamonds you dig?
The results indicated that there was a “a significant negative relationship between the money countries extract from national resources and the knowledge and skills of their high school population,” said Andreas Schleicher, who oversees the PISA exams for the O.E.C.D. “This is a global pattern that holds across 65 countries that took part in the latest PISA assessment.” Oil and PISA don’t mix. (See the data map at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/43/9/49881940.pdf.)
As the Bible notes, added Schleicher, “Moses arduously led the Jews for 40 years through the desert — just to bring them to the only country in the Middle East that had no oil. But Moses may have gotten it right, after all. Today, Israel has one of the most innovative economies, and its population enjoys a standard of living most of the oil-rich countries in the region are not able to offer.”
So hold the oil, and pass the books. According to Schleicher, in the latest PISA results, students in Singapore, Finland, South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan stand out as having high PISA scores and few natural resources, while Qatar and Kazakhstan stand out as having the highest oil rents and the lowest PISA scores. (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Algeria, Bahrain, Iran and Syria stood out the same way in a similar 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or Timss, test, while, interestingly, students from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey — also Middle East states with few natural resources — scored better.) Also lagging in recent PISA scores, though, were students in many of the resource-rich countries of Latin America, like Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. Africa was not tested. Canada, Australia and Norway, also countries with high levels of natural resources, still score well on PISA, in large part, argues Schleicher, because all three countries have established deliberate policies of saving and investing these resource rents, and not just consuming them. | http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/opinion/sunday/friedman-pass-the-books-hold-the-oil.html?_r=0onatisi:The | 817 | Travel | 2 | en | 0.999954 |
Drought, Locusts, Plagues and the Always-Relevant Bible
How often have you heard the Bible mocked as antiquated and irrelevant? “It’s a bronze age book about a tribal deity,” the critics tell us. “It has nothing to say to us today.” The reality is that the Bible, which is God’s Word, is always relevant and timely. That’s because God hasn’t changed, the world hasn’t changed, and human nature hasn’t changed.
These Ancient Words Are Still Relevant
When our daughters were young teenagers, I once read to them a section from Proverbs which describes the seduction of alcohol and the after-effects of getting drunk. I wanted them to see how relevant the ancient Scriptures were to our modern world.
The text begins with this vivid description: “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper” (Proverbs 23:29–32).
Yes, that wine glistens in the cup, but soon, it will bite. And that bite will sting.
Next is the description of drunkenness and the folly of the drunkard: “Your eyes will see strange sights, and your mind will imagine confusing things. You will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging. ‘They hit me,’ you will say, ‘but I’m not hurt! They beat me, but I don’t feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?” (Proverbs 23:33–35).
Ancient words, for sure, yet as relevant today as the day they were written, more than 2,500 years ago.
There’s Nothing New Under the Sun
Today, in the year 2020, God’s Word continues to speak afresh, reminding us that there is nothing new under the sun. (Wait! That’s in the Bible too. See Ecclesiastes 1:9.)
In recent months, there have been devastating forest fires in Australia, reportedly killing more than one billion animals.
Then there were the terrible locust invasions that ravaged East Africa, with a second, even worse wave on the way.
Then we were struck with a plague, COVID-19, which could ultimately take the lives of several hundred thousand people. (The present number of deaths is roughly 120,000.)
And in each case, despite our wonderful technology and our many scientific advancements, we have been relatively powerless. We have not been able to stop the drought, the fires, the locusts or the virus. Sometimes the best we can do is run and hide.
The Verse Right Before “If My People … ” Could Have Been Spoken This Month
And that brings me back to a passage in the Word of God, where the Lord spoke to King Solomon after the dedication of the Temple.
We are all familiar with 2 Chronicles 7:14, which says this to the children of Israel, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
But what comes immediately before this verse? It is 2 Chronicles 7:13, which states, “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people.”
This was spoken in the mid-900s B.C., so, nearly 3,000 years ago. Yet it could have been spoken this month.
Drought. Locusts. Plague. A devastated earth and a devastated people. The only solution is repentance and prayer.
Now, I am not saying that the wildfires in Australia were divine judgment or that the locust invasions have been divine judgment or that the coronavirus has been a divine judgment. God Himself knows.
Confronting the Same Problems, Needing the Same Solution
But I am saying that there is nothing new under the sun. That the same challenges that confronted the human race three millennia ago are still confronting us today. And that humbly seeking God remains the ultimate solution.
Not surprisingly, a recent America-based poll commissioned by Joel Rosenberg’s Joshua Fund found that “44.3% of poll respondents said they believe the coronavirus and resulting economic meltdown is a ‘wake up call for us to turn back to faith in God,’ signs of ‘coming judgment,’ or both.”
The poll also found that, “Fully one-in-five non-Christians (21.5%) polled said the crisis is causing them to start reading the Bible and listen to Bible teaching and Christian sermons online even though they usually don’t, search online to learn more about Bible prophecy and God’s plan for the future of mankind, and have more spiritual conversations with family and friends.”
As the old saying goes, there are no atheists in foxholes.
People Are Coming to God, Who Is Always the Same
Of course, some do remain atheists to their dying day, but the truth remains the same. When we are confronted with our own frailty and our inability to change life and death situations, we are more likely to pray. That holds true for believers as well as unbelievers. Calamity has a way of bringing us to our knees.
So, while some skeptics continue to mock, others are recognizing their need, turning to the Book they once ridiculed and reviled.
When they do, they will encounter the living God who still saves and heals and delivers.
That’s because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
Yes, that’s in the Bible too.
Dr. Michael Brown (www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. His latest book is Jezebel’s War With America: The Plot to Destroy Our Country and What We Can Do to Turn the Tide. Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. | https://stream.org/drought-locusts-plagues-and-the-always-relevant-bible/ | 1,383 | Religion | 3 | en | 0.999977 |