{jcomments on}OMAR, AGNEWS, BXL, le 03 mai 2010 – www.reliefweb.int- May 03, 2010–The media today in Uganda is more like public relations reporting. If you stick to real issues, you may not remain in the profession. You’ll be in danger.
RWANDA
UGANDA
In Uganda, Push to Curb Gays Draws U.S. Guest
By JOSH KRON/www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03
KAMPALA, Uganda — As storm clouds brewed in the near distance, about 1,300 people gathered at the grassy Makerere University sports grounds here for a special Sunday afternoon rally and prayer service that, its organizers said, was to discuss homosexuality, witchcraft, corruption and the fear of violence leading up to the country’s presidential election next year.
The guest of honor, Lou Engle, an American evangelical from Kansas City, bowed up and down from his knees at the front of the stage.
Mr. Engle, who helped found TheCall Ministries, a prayer group that focuses on moral issues, arrived last week in Uganda, where TheCall has opened a new chapter. His trip comes amid a heated debate throughout the country over a bill that would ban advocacy of gay rights and suggests the death penalty for homosexuals who have AIDS and engage in sexual relations.
Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda, as in several other poor African nations. Last fall, Uganda’s Parliament began discussion of the sweeping bill, which has brought threats of aid cuts to Uganda, and has focused attention on several American pastors and politicians who have come here and offered themselves as experts on what they consider the scourge of homosexuality.
For much of Sunday’s service, the topic of homosexuality was slipped in between mentions of corruption and witchcraft; evils that Ugandans were told they should wish away. Unlike at other rallies, gay activists did not picket or protest. Instead they roamed the grounds quietly, watching from a distance.
Though not originally linked to the Ugandan legislation, Mr. Engle has long been a controversial figure in the United States for his views on homosexuality. During California’s referendum on same-sex marriage in 2008, he called homosexuality a “spirit of lawlessness.”
Before arriving here last week, Mr. Engle came out with a statement condemning the harsh penalties proposed in the bill, and said that his ministry could not support it. But when he took the stage late on Sunday afternoon, with Ugandan politicians and pastors looking on, he praised the country’s “courage” and “righteousness” in promoting the bill.
“NGOs, the U.N., Unicef, they are all coming in here and promoting an agenda,” Mr. Engle said, referring to nongovernmental organizations. “Today, America is losing its religious freedom. We are trying to restrain an agenda that is sweeping through the education system. Uganda has become ground zero.”
Politicians here have said no amount of aid cuts or foreign pressure would dissuade them from passing the bill, but the legislation has been stuck in a parliamentary committee since the beginning of the year.
The bill’s sponsor, David Bahati, who attended Sunday’s service, said in an interview that it was likely that some of its harsher provisions, including the death penalty, would be taken out before its passage, which he said he expected soon. But, he said, the goal of the bill would remain the same. The turnout for the free prayer service, and the support from Mr. Engle, were a good sign, Mr. Bahati said.
Moments after Mr. Engle and his entourage filed off of the athletic grounds, Uganda’s minister of ethics, James Buturo, another of the bill’s supporters, came on stage and told those assembled: “These are desperate times, but we will not accept intimidation. It is our business to do what God wants. Pray for Bahati, and pray for the bill.” And then the rains came.
A Media Minefield: Increased Threats to Freedom of Expression in Uganda
Source: Human Rights Watch (HRW)/www.reliefweb.int/Date: 03 May 2010
Full_Report (pdf* format – 875,3 Kbytes)
II. Summary
The media today in Uganda is more like public relations reporting. If you stick to real issues, you may not remain in the profession. You’ll be in danger.
‒Radio journalist in Hoima district
Journalists are not free to do their jobs. In most cases, they really have the information. They have done investigations, have the documents, but then they sit on it. If it relates to [local government people] or a minister, even when they have the proof to pin down the person, the radio stations will sit on it, because they fear the consequences.
‒Radio journalist in Fort Portal district
I’m a journalist. I have to inform people what is going on, but if you deny me that right, it’s like you’re forcing me to go astray … We’re not free to report as we should anymore.
‒Radio journalist in Masaka district
As Uganda plans for general elections in 2011, freedom of expression across the country is in significant jeopardy. On a superficial level, Ugandan media seem to enjoy considerable latitude, especially those based in Kampala, which regularly carry a range of opinions, including occasional criticism of government policies. In reality, however, as Human Rights Watch has found, genuinely free and independent journalism is under threat, particularly outside the capital. The government deploys a wide range of tactics to stifle critical reporting, from occasional physical violence to threats, harassment, bureaucratic interference, and criminal charges. Increasing use of these tactics during the political unrest in September 2009, and in the run-up to the February 2011 vote, threatens to fatally undermine media freedoms necessary for a free and fair election.
Uganda has notionally had open multiparty politics since 2005, after 19 years of de facto one-party rule under the National Resistance Movement (NRM), led by President Yoweri Museveni who took power in 1986. Political parties now actively vie for public support, hold rallies, and promote candidates for public office. But this process of opening up political space has been extremely uneven in practice and has resulted in increasingly arbitrary state attacks on the media as the ruling party faces more and more public and open criticism. Since the previous political campaigns in 2005, at least 40 criminal charges have been levied against journalists and talk show panelists.
This report shows that since 2005, attempts by Ugandan journalists to conduct independent political reporting and analysis in print and on radio have been met by increasing government threats, intimidation, and harassment. Human Rights Watch conducted more than 90 interviews over the course of nine months in 2009 and early 2010 that document the aggressive and arbitrary nature of state responses to criticism of the central government and the ruling NRM party. In some cases, these threats are overt, such as public statements by a resident district commissioner that a journalist should be “eliminated,” or a police summons on charges of sedition, incitement to violence, or promoting sectarianism for criticizing government action in a newspaper article. In many more cases, the threats are covert, such as phone calls—some anonymous and others from well-known ruling party operatives—intimating violence or loss of employment if a journalist pursues a certain issue or story.
Some journalists cope by steering clear of any reporting that may attract government attention or sanction, succumbing to the chilling effect of harassment. Self-censorship is especially prevalent among radio station reporters and talk show hosts based outside Kampala who broadcast in Uganda’s local languages in districts where legal protections and international scrutiny are the most lacking. The hesitation of those reporters to address sensitive political issues has a particularly pronounced effect on Ugandans’ access to information about key issues in the lead-up to the elections, as most still get their news and information from local language radio.
The Ugandan government uses its national laws to bring charges against journalists, restrict the number of people who can lawfully be journalists, revoke broadcasting licenses without due process of law, and practice other forms of repression. Similar laws and procedures exist in other countries, but in Uganda, the government uses the laws in partisan ways to create a minefield for media owners and reporters who speak or write about issues that the government deems politically sensitive or controversial. Several government-controlled bodies, including the Broadcasting Council, the Media Council, and the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) wield broad, ill-defined, and unchecked powers to regulate the media. Many of the sanctions they levy have been determined to be in violation of freedom of expression by international experts.
These kinds of restrictions—on both media outlets and individual journalists—were fully on view in September 2009, when Uganda experienced two days of rioting. Government troops responded to rioters throwing stones, blocking roads and lighting debris on fire with excessive lethal force, resulting in the deaths of at least 40 people. The riots occurred when the NRM government instructed state agencies to block the visit of a cultural leader of Uganda’s largest ethnic group, the Baganda, from visiting an area that was historically part of his kingdom. Luganda-speaking radio stations voiced support for the Buganda cultural leader and encouraged listeners to show that support by traveling to the area during the planned visit.
In response, the NRM-controlled regulatory body governing radio in Uganda, the Broadcasting Council, suspended the licenses of three Luganda-speaking stations and withdrew the license of another, Central Broadcasting Station (CBS)—all without notice or a prior court order. Police and soldiers threatened journalists trying to photograph and report on the unfolding events. In the wake of the riots, the Broadcasting Council also pressured these and other stations to suspend specific journalists whom the Council deemed had “incited violence.” The Council officially banned any open-air broadcasting—a very popular forum for public debate in local communities, known as bimeeza in Luganda—in the country on any topic. CBS remained off air at the time of writing, while the other three stations have informally negotiated with authorities to return to the airwaves.
The government-sanctioned media clampdown during and after the September riots and the criminal charges levied against numerous print journalists appear to have led local government officials and NRM party operatives to believe they should take similar action. Human Rights Watch research found that journalists based in rural districts are increasingly subjected to intimidation, threats, charges, and, to a lesser extent, physical attacks while trying to report on local political matters.
Rural radio journalists, in particular, have been targets of serious and repeated threats to their lives and their jobs. The perpetrators are often pro-NRM government officials—especially resident district commissioners who represent the President’s office at the district level—or police and intelligence officials who are retaliating against criticism or reporting on official misconduct, such as alleged corruption, mismanagement, or human rights violations. In many instances, when threatening reporters, local government officials specifically referred to what happened in Kampala during the riots as evidence of the power of the state to stop negati
ve reporting. Because local government officials are perceived to be closely aligned with police, instances of threats and intimidation have gone largely unreported and without proper investigation or prosecution. When instances have been made public, no investigation has taken place.
Several of Uganda’s national laws are inconsistent with its obligations under international law and its constitution, and the government exploits vagueness in national laws to suppress critical appraisals. It does so by charging journalists with crimes and granting media regulatory bodies broad powers to restrain speech through the revocation of licenses. Under international human rights law, namely the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), governments are allowed to restrict speech in specific instances to protect narrowly determined interests, such as national security or public morals. However, such restrictions must meet several high hurdles. First, the restriction must be prescribed clearly and narrowly by law; second, it must have the genuine purpose and effect of protecting such interests; and third, it must be the least restrictive means available.[1] Ugandan laws criminalizing certain types of speech are overly vague and broad, which makes even innocuous public statements open to criminalization. For example, the crime of “promoting sectarianism,” is defined as “any act which is likely to … promote … feelings of ill will or hostility among or against any ethnic group or body of persons on account of religion, tribe or ethnic or regional origin.”
Ugandan government authorities use these laws not to safeguard national security, but rather to stifle speech. For example, a reporter in Gulu district was charged with criminal libel for writing an article on public allegations of corruption by a deputy resident district commissioner, despite the fact that the reporter sought comment from the commissioner himself and then quoted him in the article. Another journalist was charged with sedition for commenting on radio that President Museveni had a “poor quality upbringing.”
According to international standards as set out by the Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of Expression and Access to Information, adopted by a group of experts in international law, national security, and human rights and endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, governments should permit and tolerate these types of speech. Both international and African standards on freedom of expression, including rulings by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, recognize that the threshold for restricting criticism of public officials, who are accountable to citizens, is higher than for private individuals.
Human Rights Watch recommends that Ugandan government officials and ruling party members immediately end harassment, threats, and abuse of journalists. Government officials, particularly the president and the ministers of information and security, should publicly condemn threats to the media and insist that local officials tolerate independent reporting in local languages. Police and prosecutors should investigate and prosecute incidents of threats, harassment, and intimidation of journalists. The government should also repeal or amend its laws to bring them into line with their international obligations and the rights enshrined in Uganda’s constitution. The statutes of the various media regulatory bodies should also be amended without delay to ensure that the bodies can act independently, without inappropriate government interference. Any suspension of broadcasting licenses must be carried out with regard to the due process rights of both journalists and media owners, including requiring police or the regulatory bodies to present evidence of criminal activity before a court of law before preventing any speech.
The Ministry of Information has stated that draft amendments to the Press and Journalist Act will shortly be before cabinet. In the January 2010 draft—leaked allegedly by government sources to civil society—instead of bringing Ugandan law into line with international norms, the amendments seek to impose further restrictions on free expression, extending to print media the arbitrary and overly burdensome regulations that now govern broadcast media. For example, the Media Council would be empowered to deny licenses based on its assessment of the newspaper’s “values.” Heads of media houses would also be subject to broader criminal liability through the creation of new crimes. The amendments must be scrutinized against the three-part test as set out in international norms requiring that any restriction on speech first be narrowly prescribed in law, second, that it be levied for a genuine and permissible reason, and third, that the least restrictive means possible be utilized.
Candidates have begun informal campaigning for Uganda’s 2011 elections. At the same time, the government’s harassment and intimidation of the independent media’s political programming is also increasing. Opposition presidential candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye and other opposition candidates allege that they have had difficulty getting airtime on rural radio stations, and some radio talk show hosts state they are not permitted by station owners or managers to host some opposition members. For free, fair, and credible elections to take place in 2011, the government should protect freedom of expression and refrain from harassing or targeting critical journalists or media outlets at both the national and local levels.
TANZANIA:
Fresh fears over British boat couple
3/05/2010 /www.mirror.co.uk
PIRATES
Concern mounted yesterday for kidnapped British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler after it emerged the town where they are held has fallen to Islamic militants.
Mr and Mrs Chandler have been captive in the pirate stronghold of Haradheere since last October.
Mr Chandler, 60, and his 56-year-old wife, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania when they were captured by pirates.
But now Haradheere has fallen to the hardline Islamic group Hizb-ul-Islam.
The Chandlers are among 300 people being held hostage but there are fears they may now be killed.
Pirates usually release prisoners unharmed once a ransom has been paid.
CONGO RDC :
More Deaths in DR Congo
By June Kellum/Epoch Times Staff/May 3, 2010
The U.N. is investigating the latest attack by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on villagers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the
U.N., said Saturday that 100 people were killed in the attack, bringing the estimated death toll to over 500 since December, according to Aljazeera.
The International Crisis Group, an NGO that attempts to resolve deadly conflicts, said that the Congolese government is too weak to protect its people, “The LRA has exploited the inability of the Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic to control their border areas and benefited from insufficient coordination between their armies.”
Holmes said that, “Only by pooling intelligence and coordinating activities across the entire affected region can the Ugandan army, its national partners, the U.N., and civilians hope to rid themselves of the LRA.”
KENYA :
Scan Group of Kenya, Ogilvy & Mather in Joint Venture (Update1)
May 3 /Bloomberg
May 3 (Bloomberg) — Scan Group Ltd., East Africa’s biggest advertising company, said it entered into a partnership with Ogilvy & Mather Group Holdings Ltd. to form a new unit known as Ogilvy Africa.
The companies “agreed to create a pan-African joint venture via a share-swap transaction, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals,” according to a joint statement published in the Nairobi-based Daily Nation newspaper today.
Ogilvy South Africa will exchange its holding in its operations outside South Africa for a combination of Scan Group shares and cash. In addition, Koome Mwambia, the chief executive officer of Nairobi-based Ogilvy East Africa, will exchange his stake in Ogilvy Kenya for cash and shares in Scan Group, the companies said.
Ogilvy Africa, which will become the largest advertising and communications company in East Africa, will appoint a CEO. Mwambia will remain head of Ogilvy East Africa, according to the statement.
In October, Scan Group, which is 27.5 percent owned by London-based WPP Plc, the world’s biggest communications company, started a digital marketing unit known as Squad Digital, a joint venture between it, India’s Smile Interactive Technology Group and Quasar, a unit of WPP Digital.
ANGOLA :
SOUTH AFRICA:
BHP Billiton, Nedbank May Move: South African Equity Preview
May 03, 2010/By Nicky Smith/Bloomberg
May 3 (Bloomberg) — The following is a list of companies whose shares may have unusual price changes in South Africa. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names and prices are from the last close.
South Africa’s FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index fell 80.51, or 0.3 percent, to 28,635.76 in Johannesburg.
BHP Billiton Ltd. (BIL SJ): Australia said it will raise taxes on resource companies to help pay for infrastructure, retirement and company levy reforms. The government will charge a 40 percent tax on mining profits, it said. Shares in BHP, the world’s largest mining company, fell 6.60 rand, or 2.8 percent, to 229.40 rand.
Nedbank Group Ltd. (NED SJ): The South African bank controlled by Old Mutual Plc holds its annual general meeting. The stock fell 23 cents, or 0.2 percent, to 133.87 rand.
The following stocks will begin trading without the right to their latest dividends:
ELB Group Ltd. (ELR SJ), Glenrand MIB Ltd. (GMB SJ), Phumelela Gaming Ltd. (PHM SJ), Zeder Investments Ltd. (ZED SJ).
Shares or American depositary receipts of the following South African companies closed as follows:
Anglo American Plc (AAUKY US) fell 4.2 percent to $21.05 AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU US) gained 0.6 percent to $41.86. BHP Billiton Ltd. (BBL US) dropped 4.5 percent to $61. DRDGold Ltd. (DROOY US) added 0.2 percent to $5.07. Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI US) increased 1.4 percent to $13.44. Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HMY US) rallied 1.4 percent to $9.77. Impala Platinum Holdings (IMPUY US) gained 0.9 percent to $28.40. Sappi Ltd. (SPP US) advanced 0.9 percent to $4.22. Sasol Ltd. (SSL US) gained 0.5 percent to $40.65.
–Editors: Alastair Reed, Stephen Taylor.
AFRICA / AU :
Australia low risk for premature adult death
www.pharmacynews.com.au/by Jennifer Joseph /3 May 2010
Australia’s mortality rates have significantly improved since 1970, with a new study finding the nation is now in the top 10 list for lowest risks of adult make and female mortality worldwide.
The study, published in The Lancet and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, compiled a database of 3,889 measurements of adult mortality for 187 countries from 1970 to 2010 using vital registration data and census and survey data, with the aim of estimating worldwide mortality in men and women aged 15—59 years.
In a ranking of countries with the lowest risks of adult male mortality and adult female mortality between 1970 and 2010, Australia moved from 44th to 6th position and from 36th to 8th position respectively.
In 2010, the country with the lowest risk of mortality for men is Iceland, while the country with the lowest risk of mortality for women is Cyprus.
The highest risk of mortality in 2010 is seen in Swaziland for men and Zambia for women. Researchers said between 1970 and 2010, substantial increases in adult mortality occurred in sub-Saharan Africa because of the HIV epidemic and in countries in or related to the former Soviet Union.
Other regional trends were also seen, such as stagnation in the decline of adult mortality for large countries in southeast Asia and a striking decline in female mortality in south Asia.
Improved calorie intake, control of infectious diseases and access to health care were highlighted as factors in the decline in adult mortality.
“Five factors might explain the changes in adult mortality: the diseases of affluence; socioeconomic development; improved health technologies; social dysfunction in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union; and the HIV epidemic,” said researchers.
“Socioeconomic development also has an important interaction with improvements in health technologies such as antihypertensive drugs, statins, or invasive therapies for coronary heart disease.”
Researchers said the prevention of premature adult death is just as important for global health policy as the improvement of child survival, with nearly 24 million adults dying under the age of 60 years every year.
“The global health community needs to broaden its focus and to learn from measures applied in countries such as Australia and South Korea to ensure that those who survive to adulthood will also survive until old age,” said researchers.
How the new mining tax works
May 3, 2010 /.www.smh.com.au/Reuters
The suggested new 40 per cent tax on mining profits is not as far-reaching as it first seems.
The tax will sting, no doubt, but it will not apply to all the profits of miners working in Australia. Any profits derived from mines outside Australia will be left untouched.
So companies like Anglo-Australian mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have less to lose than the naked headlines would suggest: their non-Australian mining operations are completely outside the tax.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
A mining company will need to calculate how much profit it makes from each of its Australian operations and declare that to the tax authorities. The profit is to be calculated as close to the ground as possible: that is, at the mine gate. But the details on this have yet to be hammered out, leaving wide scope for mining companies to agree on a more flexible approach.
For example, a miner with two adjacent operations may push for both mines to be included in one profit calculation for the tax authorities, if it felt this would lead to a lower tax bill.
These profit calculations are purely for the tax authorities and are not the group accounts drafted for investors, but they won’t be entirely new arithmetic for global miners. South Africa and Canada and the U.S. mining state of Nevada already require them to produce accounts for profits-based taxes.
IS IT ALL PAIN & NO GAIN?
The federal government knows there are very few votes to be lost from taxing rich miners that hire fewer workers per dollar of profit than many other sectors of the economy. But Canberra is still dangling some carrots for the mining industry in the form of a tax allowance and an exploration tax rebate.
The allowance represents an amount of profit that is exempt from the new tax. In principle, it is the government’s estimate of a fair rate of return on mining assets.
Utilities world-wide understand this concept well because their returns on assets are routinely regulated in order to prevent them from unjustifiable increases in power bills.
For miners, there is a lot to play for here: the government wants untaxed returns on assets to be set at a rate equivalent to the 10-year government bond yield, now just 5.76 per cent. But, if the miners lose their war against the tax, they could win a decisive battle by raising the tax-free return rate.
GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE …
Say, a mine (not a miner) has assets worth $100 million. Using the current bond yield, the company may deduct $5.76 million from its calculation of the mine’s profit.
“Using a rate higher than the government bond rate would result in a significant subsidy to the resource sector…,” the government said. Expect the miners to lobby for exactly that.
THE EXPLORATION FREEBIE
The government is also offering a tax rebate on exploration costs, which will be set initially at 30 percent. That means for every dollar spent on exploration, 30 cents will be available for miners as a tax credit. The industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year on exploration in Australia.
And when mines are wound up, the owners can crystallise any leftover tax credits accumulated during the mine’s life.
OUTBACK ACCOUNTING
Mines can be an auditor’s nightmare: in Australia, they are scattered over the desert, thousands of km (miles) from any place where people go to work in suits. So auditing of a mine’s assets could be trickier to confirm than a utility’s balance sheet.
The new tax calculations will be kinder to mines with lots of assets and conservative accounting for expenses, so tax officials will be on the lookout for any clever accounting. Armed with sophisticated data-matching systems, they will compare public accounts against the figures produced for tax purposes.
More than ever before, tax officials will keep an eagle eye on the outback.
UN /ONU :
Sudanese Government Forces Clash With Darfur Rebels, UN Says
May 03, 2010/By Maram Mazen/Bloomberg
May 2 (Bloomberg) — Clashes between Sudanese government forces and a rebel group have led to casualties in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, the United Nations and African Union peacekeeping mission said today.
The Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudanese armed forces blamed each other for initiating the violence, which broke the terms of a Feb. 23 cease-fire agreement, Kemal Saiki, the mission’s director of communications, said by phone today from El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.
While the peacekeeping mission has “indications that there have been casualties,” Saiki couldn’t say how many have been hurt in the fighting in the Jebel Moon area in West Darfur.
The Sudanese government and the rebels signed a temporary cease-fire agreement on Feb. 23 in the Qatari capital, Doha. The accord included a March 15 deadline for a final peace agreement.
Previous peace deals have failed to end the conflict in Darfur, which flared in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, accusing it of neglecting the region.
Clashes, along with tribal fighting, banditry and disease, has claimed about 300,000 lives and forced more than 2 million people to flee their homes, according to UN estimates. The Sudanese government puts the violence-related death toll at about 10,000.
–Editors: Alastair Reed, Stephen Taylor.
Exclusive: First African American president to Promote Injustice in African Country
Mohamed Yahya for Salem-News.com /May-03-2010
Who has turned a blind to the suffering of Africans in Darfur?
(DAMANGA, Sudan) – As the victims and survivors of Darfur genocide, we are not surprised by the results of the Sudanese rigged, flawed elections that have been announced earlier this week, to declare a victory for Omar Al-Bashir, as a re-elected president to Sudan. But we are extremely shocked, and terribly annoyed for the support of some of the International Community members, especially, the US, the UN, the African Union, the Arab League, Muslim world and some of the European countries.
It is so painful and enormously unbelievable moments for us, after all this agony, grievances and those beloved families, friends, relatives and people we lost, villages destroyed, our money, properties, and animals lost.
We have worked very hard for many years to fulfill justice and promote lasting peace, freedom and democracy in our country. Suddenly, our hopes and dreams were gone without becoming true.
A man who orchestrated and perpetuated a heinous crimes against humanity, committed war crimes, genocide, by wiping out more than 450.000 people in Darfur alone from 2003 to date, was set to get away with it. He was to escape justice without accountability, even though he was Indicted by the ICC-International Criminal Court in March 4,2009 with arrest warrant passed against him and other suspects such as Ahmad Haroun, who promoted as a Governor of South Kordoan, Ali Kusheeb, the Janjaweed Leader.
In the peak of the 21st century, before the eyes of the world, Mr. Al-Bashir and his NCP have been rewarded and promoted for what they did in Darfur for over a decade of killings, raping, displacing and enslaving the Innocent, for no reason than their ethnic identity, culture, language and beliefs.
___________________________________________________________________________
People who born free and deserve to live free on their land have been targeted and their oppressors set to let go free of charges. When Martin Luther King said:” I have a dream, ” our dream doesn’t comes true. He also said:” Free at last, free at last, thanks God Almighty we are free at last”.
But this time not for us…it is for Al-Bashir and the rest of the NCP – Killers. They are the ones who are set free at last. It is the history repeating itself from America to Darfur of Africa today.
As if our Humanitarian and civic rights leader Mr. King voicing his powerful words again: ” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked ‘Insufficient funds’. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.”
And guess what?
Who has turned a blind to the suffering of Africans in Darfur?
— A man who claims to be in charge of change, democracy and civic rights movement and inheritor of Mr. King’s legacy.
— A man from the same African decent, and the first African American president of the United States of America.
— A man called “OBAMA” who promised to do as good as Mr. King does and claimed:” The United States has a moral obligation anytime you see humanitarian catastrophes.
We can’t say “never again” and then allow it to happen again as President of the United States I don’t Intend to abandon people or turn a blind eye to slaughter “BARACK OBAMA”.
Unfortunately, President Obama and his administration, specifically, General Gration have deliberately, ignored and turned a blind eye to Darfur and supported the indicted president Al-Bashir and his notorious regime financially, logistically, and technically for the Doha negotiations and the manipulated stolen elections that were boycotted by Darfuris and major parties in Sudan and by most American people. But Obama’s White House says: okay to the Sudan’s rigged elections despite the frauds, harasment, blocking the opponents, forcing for voter registration, bribes, Intimidation and all kinds of rights violations and free choices.
Therefore, Al-Bashir has been given a green light to win an election without a competition, and he later claimed victory to wash his bloody hands. This happened while the so-called United Nations Security Council remained silent following US with no rejections or objections.
At the end of the day, only the people of Darfur are paying the prize because the Sudan government and the Janjaweed are continuously attacking Darfur till now, bombing the rest of villages. They have escalated the situation significantly after the election’s results announced last Monday April 26, 2010, after threats of demonstrations by the angry civilians rejecting election results declaring Al-Bashir’s victory. Since then, extensive troops are surrounding all cities, villages, and camps and are blocking roads with people kept hostage in their homes. The forces of injustice are declaring de-facto martial law and effecting restriction of movements, especially in El-fasir, Al-geneina and Nyala. This is in addition to unidentified numbers of causalities that continue to be reported.
Overall, there’s no clear Indication of the US and its allies polices regarding Darfur and Sudan at this time and why such vicious action has gone without protest. But it seems to be their focus is on the CPA Implementation and the South 2011 referendum. That is more important to this administration than Darfur and the rest of Sudan. They wanted to separate the country and keep it apart instead of being united in one Sudan. They have ignored the best and logical fair solution by isolating /changing Al-Bashir’s NCP regime witch’s the real threat and the reason of Sudan’s separation. The US-led world is determined to pursue a foreign policy path that will lead to the Southern Sudan secession.
It is obviously about Interest of oil resources as well as a religious factor that draws the attention of some Obama administration. There has been a significant growth of religious group lobbyists who have an interest in Southern Sudan, who are influencing events behind the scenes, as well as others who are shouting “Save Sudan not Darfur.” Some have even further outrageous views and are jealously claiming that Darfur gotten more attention than it deserves.
Some have ignored the fact that Southern Sudan has it’s autonomy governed by Southerns, enjoying a peace that Darfuris lacked under the control of dictatorial fascist government of Al-Bashir, who has made Darfuris lives suffering a Hellish nightmare on a daily basis.
It is a bitterness to discriminate against one nation in terms of religion, culture, language, ethnicity, or beliefs, repeating the same policy used by their oppressors. It is terribly sad to see things moving to the opposite directions at the expense of Sudanese people specially Darfuris and South Sudanese themselves. No wise person would think for a moment that separation will gives them more privileges than unity. Sudan is a unique country because of it’s strategic location, united solid, rich, and spectacular land in its holiness , and a significant amount of a rare resources.
Some are trying to take an advantage of CPA as if it is a bible in everything, which was not and never perfect. It is a man made law and could be amended for such useful adjustments to benefit all, not just a few, with respect and dignity. It is totally unjustified when you see the SPLM/A leader like the late Dr. John Garang who fought for over twenty years, for ONE united Sudan from Nimoli south to Wadi Halfa north, and Algeniena of west Darfur to the Port Sudan at East. As his priority and principal, he fought for and killed for a united Sudan. He could have been satisfied with a referendum from the beginning an
d stopped fighting and had what he wanted without more bloodshed, but he was one of the most charismatic and farsighted leaders ever Africa had. Therefore, his famous statement is still ringing in our ears: “I need to see Sudan like a dish of Salad” all different colors green, red, white, yellow and black. A man died in that mysterious helicopter crash, gone with his secrets forever. God rest his soul in peace.
It is stunning and compelling when politics decisions are directed against the people’s will. We are against the policies of interests that defy human dignity, human rights ,and liberty. It is sham to see those shouting YES, for Justice yesterday, Saying: NO today or remaining silent. History will never forgive them. The whole world will never forgive them. It is shameful to accommodate the criminals and forget the victims.
We urge and ask President Obama of the most powerful country in the world-America, to reject this sham elections and support the ICC to enforce justice In Sudan against the barbaric fundamentalism before it was too late.
We also urging the special Envoy General Scott Gration to stop promoting the corrupted government in Sudan and its stolen elections. It is unfair to held what so called “off the records meetings” in certain places to support the rigged elections and Al-Bashir government.
We are so offended to hear the head of South Sudan Mission in the US, Mr. Ezekiel at the Corner Stone Church of Virginia last April 25, 2010, supporting what general Gration emphasizing about the elections as fair and free
“We must do it on time to keep the referendum on time. We all knew who’s going to win a year ago…if you don’t know the results going to be, then you don’t know anything” as General Gration stated responding to audience questions even they knew it wasn’t right.
Supporting the wrong outcome to justify the referendum regardless how it will affect the whole situation in the country and will make a mockery of our shared commitment to justice, human dignity, and our universal human rights.
=======================================================
Alysha Atma spends many hours working on projects that support and benefit the belegured people of African nations who spend way too much time off the western media radar. This writer explains that she is a culmination of all her experiences, most importantly knowledge she says, and all that she still needs to learn; lessons of love, laughter and the extraordinary giving of both young and old. She says she has the enormous fortune of learning from the best; every person around her, and the amazing strength and fortitude of those she has never met but will always strive to listen to. “I continue to work and write because I believe in the power of community and the power of one, both contradictory to each other and yet can move together in a very powerful way. I feel a responsibility to use my place, freedoms and connections here in the US to stand up and yell for those who need my voice and actions. I have seen such strength in my fellow humans that I cannot even begin to comprehend, they have traveled distances, have gone without food, water, shelter and safety for days and weeks at a time. I have a responsibility as a fellow human to put our common humanity before anything else. Everyone deserves to look towards tomorrow, to dream of a safe future and to have a peaceful present.” You can write to Alysha Atma at: alyshann78@comcast.net
USA :
BHP, Nedbank and Standard Bank: South African Equity Preview
May 03, 2010/By Nicky Smith/Bloomberg
May 3 (Bloomberg) — The following is a list of companies whose shares may have unusual price changes in South Africa. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names and prices are from the last close.
South Africa’s FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index fell 80.51, or 0.3 percent, to 28,635.76 in Johannesburg.
AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ANG SJ): Gold, trading near a five- month high, may decline as investor appetite for risk grows after European policy makers agreed to a 110 billion euro ($146 billion) rescue package for Greece, said Darren Heathcote, head of trading at Investec Bank (Australia) Ltd. in Sydney.
AngloGold, Africa’s largest producer of the precious metal climbed 1.5 percent to 311.49 rand, while Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI SJ), the continent’s second-largest producer, rose 0.2 percent to 98.68 rand.
BHP Billiton Ltd. (BIL SJ): Australia said it will raise taxes on resource companies to help pay for infrastructure, retirement and company levy reforms. The government will charge a 40 percent tax on mining profits, it said. Shares in BHP, the world’s largest mining company, fell 6.60 rand, or 2.8 percent, to 229.40 rand.
Nedbank Group Ltd. (NED SJ): The South African bank controlled by Old Mutual Plc holds its annual general meeting. The stock fell 23 cents, or 0.2 percent, to 133.87 rand.
Standard Bank Group Ltd. (SBK SJ): South Africa’s Supreme South Gauteng High Court dismissed a 180 million rand ($24.4 million) claim that Africa’s largest lender stole a confidential system to prevent hacking, Business Day reported. Standard Bank rose 2.19 rand, or 2 percent, to 114.69 rand.
The following stocks will begin trading without the right to their latest dividends:
ELB Group Ltd. (ELR SJ), Glenrand MIB Ltd. (GMB SJ), Phumelela Gaming Ltd. (PHM SJ), Zeder Investments Ltd. (ZED SJ).
Shares or American depositary receipts of the following South African companies closed as follows:
Anglo American Plc (AAUKY US) fell 4.2 percent to $21.05 AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU US) gained 0.6 percent to $41.86. BHP Billiton Ltd. (BBL US) dropped 4.5 percent to $61. DRDGold Ltd. (DROOY US) added 0.2 percent to $5.03. Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI US) increased 1.4 percent to $13.44. Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HMY US) rallied 1.4 percent to $9.77. Impala Platinum Holdings (IMPUY US) gained 0.9 percent to $28.40. Sappi Ltd. (SPP US) advanced 0.9 percent to $4.22. Sasol Ltd. (SSL US) gained 0.5 percent to $40.65.
–With assistance from Ron Derby in Johannesburg. Editors: Alastair Reed, Karl Maier.
Suspected Somali pirates plead not guilty to attacking U.S. Navy ships (video)
May 3/Salt Lake City Page One ExaminerLisa Von App/www.examiner.com
Ten suspected Somali pirates have pleaded not guilty to charges of attacking two U.S. Navy ships. Nine of the men were arraigned on Friday in federal court; one entered a not-guilty plea on Wednesday, and another is expected to be arraigned next week.
Suspected pirates have been tried in the country of Kenya in the past, per an agreement with the U.S.; however, Kenyan officials have said their courts are currently overburdened, and they can’t try any new cases at this time. Federal officials ordered the suspects to stand trial in the U.S.
U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Bradford Stillman has tentatively scheduled the trials for July and has ordered the men be held in custody in a Virginia jail until then.
Attorneys for the accused pirates said that their inability to communicate with the Somalis has hindered preparation for the arraignments. Since none of them speak English, interpreters are needed; and the illiterate men do not understand the U.S. court system.
William J. Holmes, the attorney representing Gabul Abdullahi Ali, said, “My client doesn’t read or speak any language, much less English.” In addition to the language barrier, Holmes said the culture shock has been overwhelming. “It’s like being picked up and being taken to another planet,” he said.
When the judge challenged the age of one of the defendants–who said he was eighteen–the man then said he didn’t actually know his birth date. Another one of the defendants told the Court that he had never seen a school; most of the men have had no education at all.
Five of the suspects allegedly attacked the USS Nicholas off Africa’s coast during the late evening of March 31. A second attack occurred on the USS Ashland in the Gulf of Aden on April 10, which prompted U.S. officials to take another six Somalis into custody.
All eleven of the men have been held aboard U.S. Navy vessels for the past several weeks as evidence was being gathered to prosecute them. In addition to eyewitness accounts, the Department of Justice reportedly has forensic evidence, connecting the defendants to the crimes.
The men have been charged with piracy–which carries a mandatory life sentence–and various weapons charges. The defendants are being held in a jail just 30 miles from Norfolk, Virginia, home base of the USS Nicholas and USS Ashland.
Captain John Bruening, commanding officer of Nassau Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), said piracy is a serious, ongoing problem. In a recent U.S. Navy press release, he said, “This is why we are here. It is so much more than just putting a stop to illegal activities of only one pirate skiff. It is about fostering an environment that will give every nation the freedom to navigate the seas without fear of attack.”
Greece, the Imf and us
By Uddin Ifeanyi/234next.com/May 3, 2010
The announcement on 23 April 2010 by Greece’s Prime Minister, George Papandreou, that his country would draw on emergency aid from the IMF and the EU confirmed fears about the toxicity of that country’s sovereign liquidity, and solvency issues.
The subsequent downgrade by Standard & Poor’s, a rating agency, of Spain’s sovereign debts reinforced concerns that one consequence of Greece’s incontinence might be what the IMF referred to in its April 2010 Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR), as “a full blown and contagious sovereign debt crisis”. Together with the EU (contributing €30 million into the rescue fund), the Fund is expected to provide €15 million to help the Greeks deal with the output-depressing effects of a budget deficit clearly in excess of 15% of GDP.
The derision with which the Greek government’s decision was greeted in certain quarters in Greece was understandable when you remember that until recently, the IMF was perceived in certain quarters, especially outside that country, as a tool in the hands of imperialists and allied colonialists bent on keeping Africa and Africans in perpetual bondage. Within the context of the “Cold War”, this made plenty of sense. Africa is (still) home to some of the most important mineral deposits in the world, and Western strategists and their spooks would have been loath to have these fall under what was then the Soviet sphere of influence. The Mobutu Sese Sekos and Jean Bedel Bokassas were thus no accidents. Their buffoonery was okay, so long as it guaranteed Western access to their countries’ primary resources. This was in the sixties and seventies.
Much later, conspiracy theorists in this country, baffled by the domestic economic crawl, and aware more than most of the tremendous potential of this country, approached the 1980s debate over accessing the Fund’s bridging facilities in the knowledge that it could not be a good thing. After all, the same Western economists behind the Fund had persuaded successive governments in the country to borrow massively against our crude oil earnings. The heavy hand of the West was evident once again; its agents and privies scarcely concealed themselves, and the IMF’s nostrums were the blunt instrument with which we were to be bludgeoned financially. In the end, this economy made the painful transition from being under-borrowed to debt peonage, without anything to show for it, besides the fat Swiss accounts of our leaders – elected and usurpers. To the argument that the country was mismanaged by its indigenous rulers, you got told that these were “comprador bourgeoisie” in cahoots with “Western imperial circles”. Somehow, for “western imperial circles”, Africa, and not Asia, had to be restrained from developing if the global balance of forces was not to be disturbed. So while South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Chile, etc. all under the heavy hand of the West, saw material increases in net welfare, Nigeria, and places like Indonesia saw a sad reversal of fortunes.
Cleaving to this logic, what are we to make of Greece and its recourse to the IMF’s bridging loan? Clearly, the Fund cannot mean thereby to under-develop the Greek economy? The Greeks are not just Caucasians. Theirs is the cradle of much of the West’s intellectual heritage. Unfortunately, they share some bad habits in common with some of our best leaders on the continent. Over the years, Greece has spent its way into trouble. Not just spending more than it earned, but spending unsustainably. Sadly, the €45 billion loan package might just help repay some of Greece’s due debt, and finance its budget deficit until December.
Over the medium-term, Greece will have to restructure: cut down on spending and find ways of increasing its revenue stream without hampering the outlook for output. The people will have to bear much of the cost of any such adjustments.
Governments will struggle to remain popular, as they define growth paths that take full cognisance of the need to meet debt obligations as they fall due. The IMF will of course insist on Greece meeting all its debt obligations, and pursuing policies that place public financing on a sustainable basis. There will be much pain, but it would not have been caused by the Fund, or by its strong medicine. It would, instead, as with us, be the result of inept rule by past governments in Greece.
CANADA :
AUSTRALIA :
EUROPE :
CHINA :
Why are computer users still choking on home-made spam?
May 3, 2010/ edition.cnn.com
We all know about spam — clogging up our inboxes with adverts for Viagra and too-good-to-be-true offers from renegade African diplomats.
But who is actually responsible for sending it?
It might surprise many CNN.com readers to hear that the number one source of spam is not Nigeria, or China, but the USA, according to a report released on April 28.
The study by IT security and control firm Sophos lists the dirty dozen top spam-relaying nations and claims the USA is responsible for 13 percent of the global total, adding up to hundreds of millions of junk messages. India (7.3 percent), Brazil (6.8 percent), South Korea (4.8 percent) and Vietnam (3.4 percent) make up the top five.
China — often blamed for cybercrime by other countries — comes in at 15th place with responsibility for relaying just 1.9 percent of the world’s spam.
A similar study earlier this year by Computer security firm Symantec found that the majority of targeted malware — malicious software that includes viruses, “Trojans” and “worms” — sent in March 2010 originated in the U.S. based on mail server location, at 36.6 percent.
It also placed London at number three in the list of cities sending out targeted malware attacks responsible for 14.8 per cent. (They named Shaoxing, China, as number one.)
Spam is not just annoying, it is a serious problem for many businesses and responsible for a staggering 97 percent of all email received by business email servers, according to Sophos, putting both a strain on resources and wasting a huge amount of time.
But why is so much of it coming from developed western economies?
Virtually all spam is sent from computers infected with malware (called bots, or zombies) that are then controlled by cybercriminals — called “botherders” — without the owners’ knowledge.
PCs can become part of a botnet in a number of ways, usually via email or the web. Often users click on malicious links posted within a spam message and unwittingly download malignant malware.
“The UK and the U.S. rank near the top of many of these lists because such a large percentage of users are online with high speed connections to the Internet,” Chet Wisniewski, Senior Security Advisor, at Sophos Inc. told CNN.
“Countries such as the USA would do well to remember that cleaning-up infected PCs in their own back yard will be an important step in fighting cybercrime,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, in a statement.
The only way to reduce the risk of being compromised is to run anti-spam and anti-malware protection and ensure all software and hardware is up to date with security patches.
“We have seen many high profile incidents in the last year with things like the Conficker worm and ZBot (Zeus) shutting down many government and corporate networks in the UK,” said Wisniewski.
“One of the problems is that many people focus on attacks from outside, and may not be looking at what they are sending out.
“Most businesses have focused on stopping things at the edge of their networks and preventing stuff from forcing its way in,” said Wisniewski.
“But in the interim the criminals are tricking users into requesting the malware from web sites which bypasses things like corporate firewalls and mail gateways.
“Government, businesses, and individuals all are responsible, and one of the problems is you wont know you are infected if you aren’t running up to date anti-virus, yet you might think you are clean and wont get viruses.
“I think the most important lesson for users is to be educated that malware and spam are very advanced criminal operations. You don’t get infected only by viewing online pornography or gambling, it can happen anywhere.
“We have seen everything from embassies to football clubs, from Walmart to the U.S. Army, have their web sites compromised with exploits and people must run proper security software on their PCs at all times.
“Organizations should be looking at not just traffic coming into their networks, but also going out.”
The prevalence of infected computers has led to a new mindset among some businesses who acknowledge a proportion of their clients and customers will inevitably be infected, yet they must continue to work with them, therefore they place greater emphasis on back-office systems that aim to spot the fraud associated with malware.
Ultimately though, we would be wise to remember the human aspect to all this — and be prepared to check our own behavior online.
“We all shouldn’t forget that if no-one bought products sold via spam there would be a lot less incentive to send junk email,” explained Cluley.
“Computer users should not just protect their computers from threats like malware and spam, they should also pledge to never, ever buy anything advertised via spam.”
The rise of the red dragon
– by Desie Heita / www.newera.com.na/03 May 2010
BEIJING – China, as though a red dragon with which it identifies itself, is moving onto the main course, strengthening its trade relationship further with Africa, with renewed efforts.
There are eight new pillars upon which China would hunt for business with Africa, all which are based on sustainable development.
The suggestion for Africa is to, perhaps, embrace the new initiative on conditions of a reciprocal trade relationship with China.
For its part, China has already laid the foundation in the form of an African exhibition centre at Shanghai World Expo, which government say would boost the understanding and promotion of African products and goods across China.
It is one of the clear hints from the Chinese ministries of trade and foreign affairs, the two institutions entrusted with the most important task of forging and maintain contact with Africa, that Africa should stand up for itself.
The hints are visible from the diplomatic yet straightforward response on issues of having unrestricted entry for African products in China, as well as on issues of cheap Chinese products flooding the African market.
Jun Zhai, the foreign affairs vice minister, while admitting that cheap products are indeed an issue of concern to China as well, pointed out that it is the responsibility of the African markets to regulate the entrance of cheap products within their markets.
“The issue concerns us as well but it is something that we have to perfect as our relationship progresses and becomes stronger,” says Zhai.
In a likewise diplomatic manner, the commerce counsellor Xie Yajing cautions that China would not permit products, which are no less different to Chinese products just because they come from Africa, even though Chinese consumers are in search of products with African flavour.
Perhaps, then, Africa should seize the promotion opportunity that the Chinese trade and foreign ministers are pleased to preach about: the African pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo.
The Chinese government says that the idea of the centre is purely to exhibit African products and services, with China footing part of the total bill. It is now up to Africa to decide how fast and how far to run with the idea.
Moreover, China has remodelled the relations with Africa to include issues of social justice and environment protection. The new model has eight pillars, and goes as far as to include the issue of climate change.
The gauntlet is now for Africa to dictate how to fit in this relationship. But as for China, it is an important strategic relationship between partners with mutual understanding and common goals, commented Zhai.
The value of trade flowing to and from China and Africa reached US$91 billion in 2008, which is 30 percent above the 2007 trade value, and for the first six months of 2009, the value is at US30 billion. China’s spending on infrastructural development is estimated at above US$8 billion.
Zhai dismissed the assertion that the revised relationship stems from constant criticism from Europe and the US that China’s interest in Africa is self-fulfilment with no long-term benefits for Africa, thus the exploitation of resources.
“Ours is not a new relationship, it is something that spans back many decades,” responds Zhai, adding that if the West has interest to develop Africa it can do so without China’s objection. However, “no matter what they [West] say our friendship with Africa is rooted on the past and would continue to go forward”.
The reasons for adopting new measures for trading with Africa, says Zhai, is to address the most common challenges of the day. In addition, the new measures would bring real benefit to African people through sustainable development.
Expo shows dazzle visitors
By Matt Hodges (China Daily)/2010-05-03
Shanghai throbs to Expo pavilion programs, street festivities during opening weekend
SHANGHAI – Screen siren Gong Li showed how Expo 2010 can bring the world closer to China, and vice-versa: As the France Pavilion’s new “Charm Ambassador”, she accepted France’s prestigious Order of the Legion of Honor award during the opening weekend amid festivities and goodwill.
Gong ranks as one of China’s most recognizable actresses, and is credited with helping France and much of Europe discover Chinese cinema.
After touring the France pavilion with French actor Alain Delon on Friday, she won over a congregation of VIPs on the closed-off rooftop garden the following afternoon.
“It’s been a real love story between me and France for a long time because it was the first country I visited,” said Gong, the Chinese face of French cosmetics brand and Shanghai Expo sponsor L’Oreal. She rose to fame 19 years ago in Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern and now serves as a UNESCO Artist for Peace and a UN Environmental Program ambassador. Gong became a Singapore citizen in 2008.
Relations between China and France hit a trough in 2008 when protesters attempted to sabotage the Beijing Olympic torch relay in Paris, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy met the Dalai Lama.
But ties began improving recently with Sarkozy meeting President Hu Jintao in Beijing last week before both attended the Expo’s exuberant opening ceremony on Friday night.
Friday’s fireworks display on the banks of the Huangpu River almost matched the “stamping footprints” of the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in terms of visual pyrotechnics.
Expo unleashed its cultural smorgasbord on Saturday with traditional Hakka dances outside the New Zealand Pavilion, a lion dance on the stage of Malaysia’s pavilion and scores of colorful performances under clear blue skies.
Sunday’s festivities included street parades, public shows by Shaolin warrior monks and a street dance by performers from next month’s FIFA World Cup.
“We borrow moves from soccer and integrate it with our own movements. It’s like an imaginary soccer dance,” said Kena Mokoka, explaining the roots of the Diski Dance. He will perform at the Opening Ceremony of the World Cup. Diski is South African township slang for soccer.
The Joint African Pavilion proved a magnet over the weekend, with Chinese visitors transfixed by its life-size statues of giraffes and camels, a bustling market and a mountainous stage that hosted several fashion shows.
“The Chinese are so nice,” said Chila Smith Lino from Mozambique, who was selling African art. “They’re very curious about Africa, and interacting with Africans.”
About 1 km away, outside the New Zealand Pavilion, a small crowd was captivated as tattooed dancers sang and stamped their feet in grass skirts, as it soon became apparent that the Expo is above all a visual experience and a living advertisement for hundreds of national tourism and investment boards.Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende cut the ribbon at the Netherlands “Lucky Street”-themed Pavilion after lunch on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Prince Mansour bin Miteb bin Abdul-Aziz hoped Saudi Arabia’s sand dune-shaped structure, at $147 million the second-most expensive national pavilion, “stays in China long after the Expo ends”.
The havoc seen during last week’s soft opening was just a memory, with three-hour queues outside the most popular pavilion often trimmed to between 30 minutes and 1 hour. Exceptions to this included the pavilions of the UK and Switzerland.
“It’s not as hectic as I expected,” said Laurent Martin, one of the people responsible for the France section of Expo Online.
More than 213,600 visitors visited the site of Expo 2010 Shanghai by 5pm on Sunday, the second day after the Expo’s official opening, exceeding Saturday’s total of 207,700.
The temperature in Shanghai also reached a new high of nearly 30 C on Sunday, forcing the organizers to switch on the air conditioning facilities at the Expo Garden.
The Chinese might not like queuing, but they showed they are capable of playing the waiting game as well as, if not better than, the rest of the world.
“This is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Zheng Meiping, a Shanghai teacher who was taking a virtual tour of Europe with her daughter. She waited three hours to sample the Swiss Pavilion’s 10-minute chairlift ride, which takes in sweeping views of the Expo Garden.
“You need much patience, but it’s bearable. I doubt we’ll ever be able to go to Switzerland. I was terrified on the chairlift, but despite that, I still really enjoyed the ride. It was just like the Alps.”
Inside the Spain Pavilion, one of the top drawers with its wicker-basket exterior, a 7.6-meter model of a baby and projections of Picasso sketching on a 60-meter digital canvas, even Spanish guests were left goggle-eyed as flamenco dancers writhed in a Neanderthal setting under suspended bones.
“Spectacular,” said pensioner Augustin Badosa. “I felt like I was there, in the streets running with the bulls. It’s the best pavilion here, and it invites all Chinese to experience our culture.”
Amid all the frenzied but friendly competition for China’s attention, there was no denying France’s ability to tug heart-strings at its “Sensual City”.
“It’s such a romantic country. I loved the Louis Vuitton part, and the flower garden with the bed of red roses and weddings gowns,” said He Wenjing, a female student from Xi’an in Shaanxi province. “That’s my dream.”
China Daily
INDIA :
BRASIL:
EN BREF, CE 03 mai 2010 … AGNEWS / OMAR, BXL,03/05/2010
