http://plato123.tigblog.org/ What's on the minds of young leaders from around the globe? en-us http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/456505
I think it's important that we not only give more foreign assistance, but that what we do give is spent in the most effectively as possible. To that end, I just sent a letter to the President of the World Bank and a couple of other important development figures asking them to publish information about what aid projects they are funding.

I hope that you'll join me in taking action by sending a letter: http://www.one.org/international/accra/?rc=accrataf

We've seen aid achieve some amazing things in recent years - like over 29 million more children in school for the first time, and over 2 million more Africans with access to AIDS medications. But some aid money could be spent more effectively, and this is our best chance to make it happen.

Thank you ]]> Sat, 16 Aug 2008 14:01:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/456505 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/442573
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7529453.stm]]> Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:34:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/442573 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/410365
(Advertisement)
Just minutes after the museum opened, the 41-year-old German man pushed aside two security men guarding the exhibit.

"Then he went over to the figure and ripped off the head," a police spokesman said.

The man tore off the head in protest at the exhibit, the spokesman added. The police were alerted and arrested the man, who did not resist. He was being investigated for assault and damaging property.

The waxwork figure of a glum-looking Adolf Hitler in a mock bunker during the last days of his life was criticised as being in bad taste. A media preview of the new branch of Madame Tussauds on Thursday was overshadowed by a row over the exhibit.

Critics said it was inappropriate to display the Nazi dictator, who started World War Two and ordered the extermination of Europe's Jews, in a museum alongside celebrities, pop stars, world statesmen and sporting heroes.

Dressed in a grey suit, the figure of Hitler gazed downwards with a despondent stare, his arm outstretched on a large wooden table with a map of Europe on the wall of his gloomy bunker.

About 25 workers spent about four months on the waxwork, using more than 2,000 pictures and pieces of archive material and also guided by a model of the "Fuehrer" in the London branch of Madame Tussauds where it is standing upright.

It is illegal in Germany to show Nazi symbols and art glorifying Hitler and the exhibit was cordoned off to stop visitors posing with him.

Unobtrusive signs asked visitors to refrain from taking photos or posing with Hitler "out of respect for the millions of people who died during World War Two". Camera surveillance and museum officials were meant to stop inappropriate behaviour.

Institutions such as the foundation for Germany's central Holocaust memorial site condemned the idea of the exhibit as tasteless, saying it had been included to generate business.

The wax figure is the latest in a gradual breaking down of taboos about Hitler in Germany more than 60 years after the end of the war and the Holocaust in which some six million Jews were killed.

The 2004 film "Downfall" provoked controversy as it portrayed the leader in a human light during the last days of his life and last year a satire about Hitler by Swiss-born Jewish director Dani Levy was released in Germany.

(Reporting by Paul Carrel and Sabine Ehrhardt; editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080705/tod-uk-germany-hitler-head-1a5e080.html
]]> Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:19:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/410365 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/399707
The upcoming election creates an amazing opportunity for ONE members
to take action with ONE Vote 08, our campaign to make global disease
and extreme poverty priorities in the 2008 presidential election.

Florida is a crucial state in this election and that gives us the
chance to use our voices on behalf of the world's poorest people.

To help get started, we are hosting a conference call for ONE members
interested in getting more involved with the campaign Wednesday, July
2nd at 7:00 PM EST. To RSVP for the call please click here:
http://www.one.org/event/GeneralEvent/468

After you RSVP, we will get you the call-in number and pass code. In
the meantime, feel free to invite your friends and family to join in
as well. We would like as many people as possible to join this call.

During the call ONE CEO David Lane and other ONE Vote 08 staff will
briefly discuss the campaign strategy, ways to get involved in your
community, and answer any questions you may have.

We hope you will join us Wednesday and we look forward to working
with you in the coming months.

Thank you,

Jedidiah Hall
Matt Haber
Florida Field Organizers
]]> Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:55:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/399707 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/399021 The G8 – comprising world’s most industrialised democracies, the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), Japan, Russia, Italy, France, Germany and Canada – is worried about Nigeria’s ability to handle the safety and security obligations associated with use of nuclear technology.
The US has been leading the campaign against uranium enrichment for nuclear technology by Iran and North Korea, and although Nigeria’s nuclear programme is purely for power generation, the G8 nations are said to be uncomfortable with it.
Confirming this to THISDAY, the Director-General of the Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NNRA), Professor Shamsedeen Elegba, said the G8 countries had expressed their concerns over the country's readiness to fulfil safety and security obligations associated with the establishment of nuclear power plant in the country.
The D-G, who spoke to THISDAY at the end of a week-long capacity training programme on nuclear energy safety issues, said though the countries agreed that Nigeria needed nuclear power plant for electricity purposes, the concerns are whether the country could adequately ensure safe and secure deployment of the facility.
“Most of them are cynical about our level of safety and some even question our level of responsibility because it is something that just one little mistake, everybody is affected,” he said.
In April 1986, there was a nuclear reactor accident in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the old Soviet Union, regarded as the worst in history, resulting in a severe release of radioactivity into the environment following a massive power excursion which destroyed the reactor.
Thirty people died in the explosion, but further explosions and the resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including western Soviet Union, Europe and as far as eastern North America.
Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia were highly contaminated, leading to the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people.
The 2005 report prepared by the Chernobyl Forum, led by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and World Health Organisation (WHO), attributed 56 direct deaths – 47 accident workers, and nine children with thyroid cancer – and estimated 4,000 extra deaths due to cancer among the approximately 600,000 most highly exposed and 5,000 among the six million living nearby.
Speaking on whether the reservation expressed by the world powers would affect Nigeria's nuclear energy ambition, Elegga said they were only concerned about safety issues which the country was trying hard to address.
“What everybody is worried about is the level of safety because the nuclear industry is highly regulated, just like the aviation sector. It is highly regulated because one accident is too many and therefore everybody is particularly worried about our levels of preparedness, especially the regulatory authorities. They want to be sure that all uses, whether within the country or being transported in and out of the country, are appropriately provided for in terms of safety,” he said.
Elegba said Nigeria had made significant progress in the area of safety efforts, adding that the country had ratified the convention on nuclear safety which meant that “we are bound to comply with all the requirements for safety of nuclear installations in the country. We are also a party to the convention of physical protection of nuclear materials and installation which makes it mandatory on us”.
He said Nigeria was also reviewing her laws to make sure that adequate resources were made available to ensure safety and security of nuclear materials in the country.
The D-G said the target date for establishment of nuclear power plant would be determined after an agreement on the supply of the reactor had been reached with the producers.
“It is after an agreement has been signed with suppliers of nuclear reactors that NNRA can be in a position to issue licence as to where the plant can be sited as well as the design of the building,” he said.
According to him, part of the role of NNRA was to also issue licence for the commissioning and decommissioning of the nuclear power plant.
He said the lifespan of most nuclear power plants is usually 50 years, and the authority is empowered to ensure that adequate preparations are made on how to dismantle the nuclear facility at expiration.
The licence would stipulate among other conditions how to manage the radioactive wastes that come with it.
The D-G said the training programme was meant for front line officers from the various security organisations on safety and security of radioactive and nuclear materials.
Elegba explained that owing to the general concern on nuclear safety, NNRA was emphasising the need to have a Memorandum of Understanding with participating agencies so as to facilitate the integration of safety programmes into the curriculum of various training courses.
“We are working with the security agencies and organisations over the past seven years to ensure that radioactive sources imported, used or transported within the country are kept safe. One of the responsibilities of NNRA is to help improve the competencies of these security organisations,” he said.
He said the first step was to provide them with adequate monitoring tools and then to have an MoU signed between them and NNRA, so that at the end of the day, nuclear safety would be part of the topics to be covered by the agencies in their training schools.

From Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja, 06.30.2008 ]]> Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:36:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/399021 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/383947
Tuesday, 22 February, 2000, 16:11 GMT

Ghanaian attends own funeral

Mourners at a Ghanaian funeral were astounded when the "dead" man arrived for the ceremony, reports Kweku Sakyi Addo from Accra.

There has been drama about life and death in the village of Adaklu-Dabalu in the Volta region of Ghana, with a moral about who is more deserving of the family's money - the living or the dead.

It began when Cujoe Gokah, 32, who had had surgery for a hernia, could not raise 450,000 cedi ($120) to pay hospital bills.

After several fruitless attempts by the hospital to get the family to pool the cash to pay the bill, surgeon Dr A K Tachie came up with a fundraising idea bound to hit the target.

According to the Ghanaian Times, the surgeon sent a message to Cujoe's family that he had died.

Prompt response

The response was prompt and efficient. The family sent a delegation to settle all the medical bills, and arrange for the body to be handed over for the funeral and burial.

A few days later mourners arrived dressed in red and black chanting funeral dirges and singing the praises of the one they had lost

They had even bought a coffin which they brought along.

Suddenly Cujoe appeared in the door, to the astonishment of the mourners. The doctor explained it had been his ploy to get them to pay Cujoe's bills.

Their joy at finding Cujoe alive was much stronger than any anger at the doctor's trickery.

Talcum powder

Their dirges turned to songs of happiness. They covered Cujoe from head to toe in talcum powder which is a symbol of triumph, and carried him shoulder high.

Instead of weeping there was dancing and singing and merrymaking all night when they returned to Cujoe's village.

They returned the coffin to the coffin maker who graciously took it back and returned their money.

Cujoe has since become a tourist attraction. Schoolchildren are playing 100 cedi a time to see a man who once - sort of - died, but now lives.



]]> Fri, 06 Jun 2008 05:11:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/383947 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/378537
Just in case you ever get these two environments mixed up, this should make things a little bit clearer.

@ PRISON - You spend the majority of your time in a 10X10 cell
@ WORK - you spend the majority of your time In an 6X6 cubicle /office

@WORK - you get a break for one meal and You have to pay for it
@ PRISON - You get three meals a day fully paid for

@WORK -you get more work for Good behavior
@ PRISON - You get time off for good behavior

@ PRISON -The guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you
@ WORK -You must often carry a security card And open all the doors for yourself

@ PRISON -You can watch TV and play games
@ WORK-you could get fired for watching TV and playing games

@ PRISON -You get your own toilet
@WORK- you have to share the toilet with Some people who pee on the seat

@ PRISON -They allow your family and friends to visit
@WORK- you aren't even supposed to speak To your family

@ PRISON -All expenses are paid by the taxpayers with no work required


@ WORK- you get to pay all your expenses to go To work, and they deduct taxes from Your salary to pay for prisoners

@ PRISON - You spend most of your life inside bars wanting to get out
@ WORK -you spend most of your time wanting To get out and go inside bars

@ PRISON -You must deal with sadistic wardens
@ WORK -They are called managers


]]> Tue, 27 May 2008 15:25:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/378537 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/378375
Police officer Jiang Xiaojuan, 29, was feeding nine babies at one point.
Officer Jiang Xiaojuan, 29, the mother of a 6-month-old boy, responded to the call of duty and the instincts of motherhood when the magnitude 7.9 quake struck on May 12. "I am breast-feeding, so I can feed babies. I didn't think of it much," she said. "It is a mother's reaction, and a basic duty as a police officer to help." The death toll in the earthquake jumped Thursday to more than 51,000, and more than 29,000 are missing, according to government figures. Thousands of children have been orphaned; many others have mothers who simply can't feed them.

At one point, Jiang was feeding nine babies. "Some of the moms were injured, their fathers were dead ... five of them were orphans. They've gone away to an orphanage now," she said.

She still feeds two babies, including Zhao Lyuyang, son of a woman who survived the quake but whose breast milk stopped flowing because of the traumatic conditions.
"We walked out of the mountains for a long time. I hadn't eaten in days when I got here and my milk was not enough," said that mother, Zhao Zong Jun. "She saved my baby. I thank her so much, I can't express how I feel."
Liu Rong, another mother whose breast milk stopped in the trauma, was awed by Jiang's kindness.
"I am so touched because she has her own baby, but she fed the disaster babies first," Liu said. "If she hadn't fed my son he wouldn't have had enough to eat."
Jiang has became a celebrity, followed by local media and proclaimed on a newspaper front page as "China's Mother No. 1."
She's embarrassed by the fuss.
"I think what I did was normal," she said. "In a quake zone, many people do things for others. This was a small thing, not worth mentioning." See the quake zone »
There has been a huge outpouring of support from families who want to adopt babies orphaned by the quake. But that process takes time and there are mouths to feed.

Jiang misses her own son, who's being cared for through the emergency by in-laws in another town, but she is aware of the new connections she's made.
"I feel about these kids I fed just like my own. I have a special feeling for them. They are babies in a disaster."

Watch the officer care for babies »

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/22/china.breastfeed/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
]]> Tue, 27 May 2008 06:28:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/378375 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/378003 No Safe Heaven for the African
By Njoku SaintJerry A.
www.artseffx.com


In the book AK-47 in a Wild Why World (Contemporary African Issues - Amazon) the author was privileged to foresee some dangerous signals trailing the entire Black Africans and he put them down into a book under the caption "The Great Prophecy".

Our kind of politics, our kind of religious practices, our kind of social v alues and general life expectancy of this generation of Africans an the future. But sometimes I doubt our reading culture and ability and I am a little afraid of the future and safety of people who don't read but love to talk, complain, argue and love to be heard all the time rather than listen.

Today, South Africa is burning, Kenya just done burning and probably still smoking, Sudan is burning, Zimbabwe is burning, Nigeria is heating up and might explode any day - There is nothing anybody can do about that.
Take a closer look; wherever you come across Nigerians in any place in the world - they're very angry and bitter about those who rule them and the scary thing is they're reproducing.

The Zimbabweans are so afraid of those who rule them so they run away from home, Kenyans have been reduced to pawns by those who rule them - they stringed them on chords of ethnicity. But it's been always there, a ready tool of violence. Some are runnin g away from home already.
The Sudanese are divided by religion; the Black Africans against the ruling Arabs laced up with same strange word 'ethnic'. Group A is poised to wipe out group B and Group B is helplessly fighting back.

The people of the world feel concerned and have been effortlessly struggling to aid them stitch up the rift of hatred and ignorance that has set the entire African continent on the precipice.
Nobody can stop this except the Africans.

There've been too much of talking and meetings, too much of policies and analyses across many African regions, but the people are still running, into cold places of comfort and frustration - visit the internet, there are over a thousand Yahoogroups owned by Africans, some are discussing ideas, many are having a cyber fun and have become garrulous at the privilege of electricity over their head while their home rots in darkness - They argue and argue and talk at the touch of a button while their home burns in misery and neglect.
The bitter truth is; No Africans is safe wherever he or she is hiding at while Neo-colonialist, lawless groups and criminals rule the continent at the grip of guns and batons.

It's virtually easy to let things run loose, it's tough to get real people together, it's tough to build one ideal home - everybody is shouting; "This government is unproductive, Obasanjo is evil, Mugabe is a wicked dictator, Kibaki is a typical Africans despot, Omar al-Bashir's is running Sudan for the Arabs, they're killing people for Allah.
They're destroying their own homes.

The flicks of Sudanese refugees in the desert on a CCTV 4 (China Central TV Channel 4) documentary are disturbing - so many guns and so much hunger.
Couple of days behind, it was a Front-Page Headline for Guangzhou Daily, smokes billowing in thick black and red, black Africans heads clustered amidst ruins in the front-page picture; I asked the Chinese newspaperman "What's that?" He pouted and sneered; "Nigeria". "Nigeria what?" I asked back in 'Chinglish'.
He replied; "Nigeria oil burning"!

You see, It's an environmental thing, The South Africans who're killing and burning innocent brothers and sisters in the streets of Pretoria scarcely could tell why the hatred. The MEND rebel group locked up in the swamps of the Niger-Delta of Nigeria, threatening the security of every lives and property in the region is wielding a fierce battle against neglect and attention vehemently denied them and have found a safe heaven in the creeks and swamps with mosquitoes for comfort while those who make them rebel are hiding within a false enclave called Abuja, couple of miles away from the Niger-Delta and a sharp contrast from the environmental decay and frustration of those who'll soon repeat the spiral crisis and struggle of the neglected people across Africa.
Visiting Nigerians and tourist from America, the UK and Europe are flooding down to Abuja to buy up outlets and homes they might never live in as the city environmentally flex muscle with some cosmopolitan cities in London. It's a veiled city of bottled up grouse that'll explode one day. The rebel groups are rehearsing.

There's a dangerous signal so many of us could barely interpret - we think we're safe in our false hideouts in the US, the UK and Europe. Africans are running away from home to some developed environments they consider promising and safe. Nobody is asking why the mad run, what prompted this exodus?
What is happening in South Africa today is brewing in Ghana, in Togo, across other African countries. Libya is a better leading example of an African nightmare while natives of smaller African countries struggle to get out in rafts, canoes and through a donkey ride to Europe.
Ou r environment makes us run.

October 2000, more than 4,000 Nigerians were fortunate to be repatriated from Libya following clashes involving the migrant Africans, especially West African citizens and their Libyan hosts, the deportees, narrated harrowing tales of their experience in Libya, anger flared up. About 500 Nigerians were killed during the attacks. The Libyans are deporting more, 163 Black Africans persons were bundled out by May 2008.

In Asia, the people are taking a closer observation of Africans while Nigerians top the list of 'Special Countries' with a negative profile.
At the Departure wing of Hong Kong International Airport, the uniformed immigration officer yells. "You Nigerians" and the young Black guy replied "What"? The immigration officer replied, "Why don't you stay in your country and get organized for once?"

And the young man said; "but m y government have a diplomatic tie with your government, do you have a problem with that?"
"The officer sneered; "which government?" Do you have a government?" Listen my friend, the day you have a government we'll know" The young black guy smiled at the insult and went his way.

The truth is; as the author have outlined in the first 91page section of the book AK-47 in a Why Wild World It's a cultural thing, the kind of culture we practice automatically defines our environment. When a people's culture is threatened, their whole life is at risk, they suddenly lost direction, they lost value for life because culture defines the values and way of life of people and once things have gone that awkward, people will resort to place of animals, it was never an African thing to disrupt the peace of our own community and hunt your own brothers like wild games - You may wish to quote me wrong on the issues of slavery - Most of the people sold into slavery before the entrepreneurs took the business serious were 'the Charlatans, the Outcasts' the kind of people ruling the entire continent of Africans today were the 'first to be sold' kind of slaves.

For goodness sake; We do believe in the divine and you can't afford not to give account of your stewardship; You dare not steal from the community and go scot-free, you dare not indulge in falsehood and still belong to our Africans traditional society, You dare not neglect your children and your household and walk tall among men, you dare not take advantage of the poor nor insult your people and go scot-free, You dare not take our monies contributed through 'isusu' (cooperative thrift) and be bold to face any member of the community.
Why all the shouts about Poverty Alleviation and Job creation and a group of people are assigned to head that institution without any visible sign of progress. A nd they're giving analyses - of what?

Why all that Chest thumping of economic progress amidst dilapidated infrastructures and environmental decay that might compel some Africans to stay back at home and invest their talents in Africa and nobody is budged at such insult on the psyche of the Africans - He love to talk, he love to be heard by holding meetings, press conference and presenting phony analyses of this and that, always analyzing! He does a lot of shouting against these injustice and sheer ignorance both online and on newsprints but give him a political office, rub some stolen monies into his hand - He'll simply change attitude!
That's the summary of the life of a typical dumb criminal minded African.

But the truth is nobody is safe with this kind of attitude and level of ignorance permeating through our communities, our culture and worse still, our religious practices.

Religion is supposed to reform people to sane and self-conscious individuals - at the rate we've had it.
Our carelessness is hunting us all, our neglect of social values, our neglect of simple education, our neglect of our own environment and discipline, our struggle with ignorance and irresponsibility to our own home is going to hunt us all down and should we dare run. Nowhere can contain us.
South Africans have come up with one prophetic example. This crisis has been brewing for quite a long time and has finally exploded.

The people wielding batons and setting human beings on fire in this age of creativity are black brothers - Africans - Not whites, Not Asians but our own brothers; a young Zimbabwean cried bitterly as his brothers were clubbed to death. "I thought I would be safe here because Mugabe is a serial killer. But these locals are just as bad," he said.

Why all the mad run away from home? Does this bother your sense of belonging at all? Ask a Nigerian young man why all that harrowing experience crossing the hot desert to Europe and he replies; "the government, our environment makes me run, I have no hope in the country and if I don't run my life is useless here"
I repeat; it's an environmental thing. If your uncles, friends and bulgy tummy Daddy's did not ruin the system entrusted into their care, destroyed their own homes with their brazen abuse of civility and some unmatched ignorance found among untamed animals in the jungle. We sure would be far better in our homes than all these blind run to false places of hope and comfort.

Asia has not been fascinating but the throng of young Africans in the streets of Guangzhou with Nigerians in the lead is a disturbing eyesore.
Everyone is responsible for the blood spilled in the streets of South Africa today, but the worse thing is; this animosity is spreading like a wild fire across the entire African continent due to sheer neglect to build our own homes and absorb our own people.

Until we all begin to disrespect the people who make us run away in the first place by boycotting them completely whenever they shuttle this same cold places of comfort they consider a safe heaven, No one is safe anywhere, not even the corporate robbers looting and destroying our homes in the name of 'policies and analyses' that has not been able to build one decent block of classroom and provide simple amenities.
I would counsel you my brother to find a copy of the book
AK-47 in a Wild Why World-Amazon ) and find out what's worse to come and where you've got it all wrong and what impact could you play to douse this flame of hate, greed and ignorance before all these bottled up aggression explode and consume everyone.

Read Full Scripts here:
http://www.artseffx.com/features260508safe.html


]]> Mon, 26 May 2008 17:41:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/378003 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/376159
For the past years Nigeria has been victims of mismanagement of oil and it'sfunds that has contributed atleast 35% jobless of it citizens and has cost many to leave the country in search of greener lands elsewhere but some say they like travelling which is not truth when properly analyzed but rather the hazardious and risky conditions which many found it diffcult to cope with, while many remaining undoubtably proved the existance of niger delta militant and many, many other calling for proper using of the wealth to better it's citizens.
Oil/ Fuel has been causing alots of disaster in Nigeria..eg Yesterday 46 Nigeria solider lost their lives when their car colided with a Tanker carrying fuel, At least 100 people died after fuel from a ruptured pipeline caught fire and exploded in Nigeria on 17th May 2008.
More than 200 people have been killed in an oil pipeline explosion in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos.26 Dec 2006
Tuesday, 15 August, 2000, 11:29 GMT Another pipeline explosion in Nigeria Reports from Nigeria say there's been another pipeline explosion, which killed eighteen people.
Reports from Nigeria say there's been another explosion in an oil pipeline in the southern Delta state.. The latest incident brings the number of such explosions to six in the past three weeks.
31 Jul 2000 etc.....

Kidnappings and pipeline explosions are common in Nigeria's Niger Delta region, where local groups complain that they do not see the benefits of the area's oil wealth.

Farmers are also complianing of oil polutions and its effect to lives in the rivers etc....

All this has been a major problems that faces Nigeria and its government to crub out all this problems so that we can enjoy this God freely given wealth like other nations and our should not be a curse instead.
]]> Fri, 23 May 2008 05:02:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/376159 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/376153 Be honest • Don’t deceive, cheat or steal • Be reliable — do what you say you’ll do • Have the courage to do the right thing • Build a good reputation • Be loyal — stand by your family, friends and country

Respect
Treat others with respect; follow the Golden Rule • Be tolerant of differences • Use good manners, not bad language • Be considerate of the feelings of others • Don’t threaten, hit or hurt anyone • Deal peacefully with anger, insults and disagreements

Responsibility
Do what you are supposed to do • Persevere: keep on trying! • Always do your best • Use self-control • Be self-disciplined • Think before you act — consider the consequences • Be accountable for your choices

Fairness
Play by the rules • Take turns and share • Be open-minded; listen to others • Don’t take advantage of others • Don’t blame others carelessly

Caring
Be kind • Be compassionate and show you care • Express gratitude • Forgive others • Help people in need

Citizenship
Do your share to make your school and community better • Cooperate • Get involved in community affairs • Stay informed; vote • Be a good neighbor • Obey laws and rules • Respect authority • Protect the environment


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]]> Fri, 23 May 2008 04:16:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/376153 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/375079
More than 16,000 people played our new game, Deliver the Net, and had a bed net sent to Africa on their behalf, from Vestergaard Frandsen, a bed net manufacturer; Nearly 350 supporters across the America hosted NETS Challenge events, ranging from billiards tournaments to basketball games to bake sales;
Together we raised more than $550,000 - that’s 55,000 lives saved!
Supporters attended events hosted by our partners in cities across the country, including Chicago, Houston, Dallas, and Denver;
UN Foundation Founder and Chairman, Ted Turner; sports columnist and Nothing But Nets spokesperson, Rick Reilly; and our mascot, the mosquito; recognized World Malaria Day by ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on April 25.


Check out some pictures from World Malaria Day!
http://www.nothingbutnets.net/about-the-campaign/world-malaria-day-2008.html


]]> Wed, 21 May 2008 13:17:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/375079 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/372569 Nigerian woman has been jailed for 26 months for bringing a child illegally into the UK.
Peace Sandberg, who was living in the UK, went to Nigeria and bought a baby to become eligible for a council flat, Isleworth Court Court heard.
She was convicted last month of bringing a child illegally into the UK. She was reported to police after she initially told council staff she had given birth to the boy, then changed her story to say he was adopted. Sandberg had a daughter who was living with her in council accommodation in the borough of Ealing in west London.

With dual nationality - Nigerian and Swedish - she knew that as a European citizen working in the UK she would be eligible for a council flat because she had a child.
But her daughter left the UK and moved to Sweden to live with her father, Sandberg's ex-husband.
With her daughter's departure Sandberg saw her hopes of a new home slipping away - which is when she hatched her plan to get a child.
Distraught appearance
At the end of 2006 she flew back to Nigeria.
She had already sent £150 which the police believe was payment for the baby boy.
She needed a visa to take him into the UK.
During the trial Andrea Charles, a visa officer at the British High Commission in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, described to the jury how a distraught Sandberg turned up with the baby.
She claimed she had given birth to him in Nigeria because she wanted him to qualify for a Nigerian passport.
Ms Charles said she had no reason to doubt her story and issued the visa.
When Sandberg arrived back at Heathrow airport she immediately went to the housing department.
Councillor Ian Green of Ealing Council says: "She told staff that the child was hers. But they had seen her only a few months before and knew that the child couldn't be hers as she wasn't pregnant at the time.
"She then changed her story and said she had adopted the child.
"Council officers were still not satisfied and alerted the police and the other authorities because they were of the opinion that she was using this child to gain council accommodation."
A criminal investigation was launched by the Metropolitan Police's Paladin Team, specialists in child trafficking.
Isolated case?
Det Insp Gordon Valentine, who heads Paladin, said: "This was clearly a case of trafficking.
"Peace Sandberg is a heartless woman. She brought the baby from his home environment for the purpose of her own ends without any regard for the future of that child."
Child protection campaigners believe this is not an isolated case.
Christine Beddoe, director of the children's charity ECPAT UK, said: "We get information brought to us about suspicions of child trafficking particularly for housing benefit fraud from social services and from children's organisations.
"They don't seem to be reported to the police. But we do believe it is much more widespread than people think."
Social services have been unable to find the child's real family in Nigeria.
He is now in foster care and looks set to be adopted and grow up in the UK.
Det Insp Valentine says: “There is a possibility this child will never know his true identity." ]]> Fri, 16 May 2008 16:10:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/372569 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/372421 leader Morgan Tsvangirai will be held on 27 June, the government says.

For more details: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

]]> Fri, 16 May 2008 10:27:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/372421 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/371893
The explosion tore through the Ijegun suburb, engulfing schools and homes after a bulldozer burst the pipeline, reports Reuters news agency.

Red Cross officials said many injured people had been taken to hospital and they were still trying to rescue more.

Among the dead is a two year old baby, emergency relief workers said.

"The fire is still going on, a lot of people are dead. Houses are burned. People are running for their lives," the AFP news agency quoted a Red Cross volunteer as saying.

At least 36 people have been taken to a nearby military hospital, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) spokesman Abdulsalam Mohammed said.

Nigeria is one of the world's major oil producers and pipelines cut through many residential areas, both in cities such as Lagos and oil-producing areas.

Several of these have exploded, often when local people cut holes in them to steal oil.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says there at least 400 acts of vandalism on its pipelines each year, reports the AP news agency.

At least 40 people were killed in a pipeline explosion in December in Lagos last year.

In 2006, some 400 people were killed in two blasts in Lagos.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7403525.stm
]]> Thu, 15 May 2008 14:25:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/371893 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/363575 The Task Force on the Global Food Crisis will bring together the heads of UN agencies, funds and programmes and the Bretton Woods institutions, as well as experts within the UN and leading authorities from the international community.

The group will have two coordinators – Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes in New York and Senior UN System Influenza Coordinator David Nabarro in Geneva – and expects to meet in the first week of May.

The announcement came after a two-day meeting of the Chief Executive Board (CEB) – which brings together 27 heads of UN agencies, funds and programmes – chaired by the Secretary-General in the Swiss city of Bern.

In a press communiqué issued following the meeting, the CEB called on the international community to urgently provide the $755 million in emergency funds needed for the UN to feed millions of hungry people worldwide, as the first of a series of concrete measures to be taken.

“We see mounting hunger and increasing evidence of malnutrition which has severely strained the capacities of humanitarian agencies to meet humanitarian needs, especially as promised funding has not yet materialized,” Mr. Ban told a news conference in Bern.

He warned that “without full funding of these emergency requirements, we risk again the spectre of widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale.”

Protests and riots have broken out in some countries over the rising cost of many basic foods, such as rice, wheat and corn. Mr. Ban noted that escalating energy prices, lack of investment in agriculture, increasing demand, trade distortion subsidies and recurrent bad weather are among the reasons for the surge in prices.

The food crisis “threatens to undo all our good work,” Mr. Ban noted later in the day in a lecture delivered in Geneva. “If not managed properly, it could touch off a cascade of related crises – affecting trade, economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world.”

In addition to the immediate priority of feeding the hungry, Mr. Ban emphasized the need to “ensure food for tomorrow,” by giving small farmers the support they need to assure their next harvest.

UN agencies are already taking concrete measures to address the crisis. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has proposed an emergency initiative to provide low-income countries with the seeds and inputs to boost production and is calling for $1.7 billion in funding.

In addition, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is making available an additional $200 million to poor farmers in the most affected countries to boost food production.

“I am confident that we can deal with the global food crisis. We have the resources. We have the knowledge. We know what to do. We should therefore consider this not only as a problem but also as an opportunity,” the Secretary-General added, as he called on world leaders to attend the High-Level Conference on Food Security, to be held in Rome from 3 to 5 June.


]]> Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:55:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/363575 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/354741
In the past year the price of corn has risen by 31 percent, soybeans by 87 percent and wheat by 130 percent. Global grain stores are currently at their lowest levels ever, with reserves of just 40 days left in the silos. Meanwhile, food production must double in the next 25 to 50 years to feed the additional three billion people expected on the planet by 2050.

"The question of how to feed the world could hardly be more urgent," said Robert Watson, director of the IAASTD and chief scientist at the British environment and agriculture department.

The findings of the three-year IAASTD indicate that modern agriculture will have to change radically from the dominant corporate model if the world is to avoid social breakdown and environmental collapse, he explained. "Agriculture has a footprint on all of the big environmental issues...climate change, biodiversity, land degradation, water quality, etc."

The IAASTD brought together more than 400 scientists who examined all current knowledge about agricultural practices and science to find ways to double food production in the next 25 to 50 years and do so sustainably, while helping to lift the poor out of poverty. They concluded that the way to meet these challenges is through combining local and traditional know-how with formal knowledge.

The effort produced five regional assessments and a synthesis report, as well as an executive summary for decision makers.

Representatives from 30 governments of developed and developing countries, the biotechnology and pesticide industry and a wide range of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including Greenpeace and Oxfam, were involved. Public sessions were also held to gather input from producer and consumer groups, as well as others within the private sector.

However, last year the two biggest biotech and pesticide companies, Syngenta and BASF, along with their industry association -- Crop Life International -- abandoned the assessment process. This was on the grounds that the final draft of the synthesis report was overly cautious about the potential risks of genetically modified crops, and sceptical of the benefits.

"It's unfortunate that they backed out...I don't think they are used to working with a wide variety of participants as equals," said Josh Brandon, an agriculture campaigner with the Canadian branch of Greenpeace. He had high praise for the scientists involved in IAASTD -- and for the attention given to problems presented by biotechnology and the Green Revolution, such as the patenting of seeds, genetic contamination, and air and water pollution by pesticides.

The term "Green Revolution" was coined in 1968 by William Gaud -- then administrator of the United States Agency for International Development -- in reference to the increased agricultural yields that were experienced in Asia and Latin America from the late 1960s through greater use of fertilizers and better crop varieties, amongst others.

However Robert Paarlberg, a political scientist and agriculture policy expert at Harvard University, in the United States, also has concerns about the way in which the IAASTD tackles biotechnology.

He is particularly critical of the assessment for sub-Saharan Africa, saying it reads as if written by activists "who believe that the Green Revolution was a tragedy not a triumph of lifting hundreds of millions out of hunger and poverty in Asia."

Paarlberg, who did not participate in the IAASTD, recently published a book titled 'Starved for Science: How Biotechnology Is Being Kept Out of Africa'. In it, he argues that poverty and hunger in Africa are largely a result of agriculture there not having been improved by science, including modern biotechnology.

But Harriet Friedman, a sociologist at the University of Toronto in Canada and one of the editors of the assessment documents, counters that the IAASTD is based on scientific findings, not opinion: "The biotech industry and its supporters have a very narrow view of agricultural science."

The assessment places the focus on improving sustainable agriculture and small-scale production, which is receiving little investment for research. Paarlberg said that U.S. funding for agricultural research in Africa had dropped substantially in the past years, as had financing from the World Bank.

The bank is a major sponsor of the IAASTD along with a number of United Nations agencies.

In addition to analysing how the world can be fed, the assessment focuses on supporting poorer communities with agricultural science and technology, noted Cathy Holtslander, a project organiser for the Beyond Factory Farming Coalition, an animal protection NGO in Canada.

The final synthesis document, to be presented at the end of this week, is intended to act as a blueprint for governments about the future direction of agriculture.

"It's not necessary that the assessment's findings are accepted by all governments," said Friedman. "This about a sea change in public consciousness." (END/2008)

By
Stephen Leahy]]> Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:15:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/354741 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/354739 In his message marking this year’s World Health Day, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that, in addition to causing more frequent and more severe storms, heat waves, droughts and floods, climate change jeopardizes the quality and availability of water and food, “our fundamental determinants of nutrition and health.”

He stressed the need to “give voice to this often-overlooked reality, ensuring that protecting human health is anchored at the heart of the global climate change agenda.”

The Secretary-General added that it is the world’s poor – who contributed the least to climate change – that will bear the brunt of the human suffering resulting from the crisis.

For example, malnutrition and climate-related infectious diseases will take their heaviest toll on the most vulnerable – small children, the elderly and the infirm. Women living in poverty face particular risk when natural disasters and other global-warming related dangers strike.

Stressing that “climate change is real, it is accelerating and it threatens all of us,” Mr. Ban called for collective action to combat the scourge, for the sake of the planet as well as for those inhabiting it.

“The core concern is succinctly stated: climate change endangers human health,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the UN World Health Organization (WHO). “The warming of the planet will be gradual, but the effects of extreme weather events – more storms, floods, droughts and heat waves – will be abrupt and acutely felt.”

She noted that human beings are already exposed to the effects of climate-sensitive diseases, including malnutrition, which causes over 3.5 million deaths per year, diarrhoeal diseases, which kill over 1.8 million, and malaria, which kills almost 1 million.

Recent events such as the European heat wave in 2003, Hurricane Katrina – which struck the United States in 2005 – and cholera epidemics in Bangladesh are just a few examples of what can be expected in the future.

“These trends and events cannot be attributed solely to climate change but they are the types of challenges we expect to become more frequent and intense with climate changes,” she stated. “They will further strain health resources which, in many regions, are already under severe stress.”

To address the health effects of climate change, WHO is coordinating and supporting research and assessment on the most effective measures to protect health, particularly for the most vulnerable such as women and children in developing countries.

It is also advising Member States on the necessary changes to their health systems to protect their populations, and will be working closely with them in the years ahead to develop effective means of adapting to a changing climate and reducing its effects on human health.

Also marking the Day, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) highlighted the disproportionate impact climate change could have on women and children.

“Nearly 10 million children under age five die every year of largely preventable diseases,” said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman. “Many of the main global killers of children – including malaria and diarrhoea – are sensitive to changes in temperature and rainfall, and could become more common if weather patterns change.”

In addition, women and children tend to be disproportionately affected by hurricanes and flooding, which climate change experts say will increase in intensity and frequency in coming years. The destruction of homes, schools and health centres resulting from natural disasters reduce services available to families.

“The voices of women and children must be heard and their needs assessed as part of the international response to prospective changes to the environment, and they must have access to the knowledge and tools necessary to protect themselves and their communities,” the agency said in a news release.


]]> Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:10:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/354739 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/352685
In response to this growing epidemic, the United Nations' General Assembly on Monday approved the first ever conference on road safety, to be held next year in Russia.

It's high time the issue of traffic fatalities got the attention it deserves, advocates said, especially since experts expect vehicle ownership in populous nations such as China and India to double in the next 20 years.

"We have an epidemic in the making -- one that we can stop," said Dr. Mark Rosenberg, the U.S. member of the Commission for Global Road Safety and moderator of a press briefing Monday at the United Nations in New York City. "We have solutions at hand -- what we don't have is the attention of the world to this problem," he added.

The Make Roads Safe campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group that's long lobbied for global action on traffic deaths, offered these grim statistics on the scope of the problem:

More than 1 million people are killed worldwide, and more than 50 million are injured in traffic accidents each year.Road deaths are now the number-one global killer of people aged 10 to 24.While 965 people lost their lives in air crashes last year, more than 3,000 people die on the world's roadways every day.85 percent of traffic casualties occur in low- and middle-income countries. For example, the rate of child deaths due to road accidents in South Africa is 26 per 100,000 population, compared with 1.7 per 100,000 in Europe.Someone is killed or badly injured on the world's roads every six seconds.

"A lot of us have been trying to bring this issue forward for a long time, but the public tends not to look at these things as something that is preventable," said Dr. Linda Degutis, president of the American Public Health Association.

Changes in driver behaviors are key, Degutis said. In many countries, truck, bus and other transport employees drive recklessly due to economic pressures, with little policing to restrain them. "The quicker they can do a route, the faster they can get there, the more money they make," she said. "There's just not that incentive to be safe. We have to create those incentives for safety."

There was some star power on hand at the U.N. to help focus attention on the issue. Michelle Yeoh, the Chinese actress best known to Western audiences for her roles inCrouching Tiger, Hidden DragonandMemoirs of a Geisha, spoke to delegates of her recent experiences as a Make Roads Safe campaign ambassador in Asia.

"I honestly wasn't prepared, on our first fact-finding trip to Vietnam, for the emotional trauma that greeted us," Yeoh said. She recounted visiting a hospital and meeting a bewildered 5-year-old girl who had lost a foot after a traffic accident, then talking with a woman whose 9-year-old daughter had perished in a motorcycle crash.

Yeoh also attempted something millions of Vietnamese do every day: cross a chaotic urban roadway.

"Some of you may know that I make action movies. But for five seconds, I just stood there, terrified," she said. "I didn't think that I could do it."

Other advocates of the U.N. campaign include former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and fellow Nobel Peace Prize winners Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Oscar Arias Sanchez, president of Costa Rica.

Traffic deaths aren't only a scourge of the developing world. In fact, road accidents remain the leading killer of American youth aged 13 to 24, according to the Make Roads Safe campaign.

"We hear tragedies about school shootings, drug abuse, everything else, but what we forget is that the tragedies we suffer from motor-vehicle crashes on a daily basis dwarf everything else," said Daniel Vocelle, 20, a student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who is also a Make Roads Safe youth ambassador.

Vocelle's motivation to join the fight against traffic deaths came after a cousin was killed in a 2006 motorcycle crash. "It was other drivers swerving out in front of him and not seeing," he said. "There are so many accidents now where people are just careless."

Still, certain measures have successfully reduced traffic deaths in the United States and should work elsewhere, experts said.

According to Rosenberg, these interventions include simple, low-cost steps such as installing barriers along the median to prevent head-on collisions; converting four-way intersections into safer traffic circles; and installing speed bumps.

Encouraging governments to beef up policing of reckless or drunk drivers, as well as improving driver training, can also help decrease the carnage, said Rosenberg, who is director of the Decatur, Ga.-based Task Force for Child Survival and Development.

Next year's global summit, which will gather together high-ranking ministers of transport and health from most of the U.N.'s member states, should help spur real change, Rosenberg added.

"We need high-level attention from every country to this problem, so that they can work together to turn this around," he said.

More information

There's more on efforts to reduce traffic deaths worldwide at the Make Roads Safe campaign.

SOURCES: Mark Rosenberg, M.D., director, Task Force for Child Survival and Development, and U.S. member, Commission for Global Road Safety; Linda Degutis, Dr.P.H., president, American Public Health Association, Washington, D.C.; Michelle Yeoh, actress; Daniel Vocelle, Make Roads Safe campaign youth ambassador

By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter.]]> Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:52:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/352685 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/352681 By EDITH M. LEDERER – 21 hours ago

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States has urged the United Nations to get 3,600 new peacekeepers on the ground in conflict-wracked Darfur by June, according to a letter obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

Ambassador Richard Williamson, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, told Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the letter that additional troops are the best hope of increasing security in the Sudanese region.

A joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force took over in January from a beleaguered AU force to try to stem the violence. But it only has about 9,000 troops and police on the ground, out of a total of 26,000 that have been authorized.

"We believe that the deployment of 3,600 new African troops by June — a target number based on the U.N.'s planning schedule — will bring increased security and stability to the people of Darfur," Williamson wrote.

"At this crucial moment, the deployment of new troops as quickly as possible is our best hope to change the course of this tragedy."

The U.N. believes that far more than 200,000 people have been killed in the conflict. Fighting has raged in Darfur since 2003, when ethnic African tribesman took up arms, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by the Sudanese Arab-dominated government. Khartoum has been accused of unleashing janjaweed militia forces to commit atrocities against ethnic African communities in the fight with rebel groups.

Williamson said the United States has committed $100 million to train and equip African peacekeepers pledged to deploy as part of the AU-U.N. force, "and we will work to assist troop contributing countries in meeting the U.N. deployment schedule."

The U.S. wants Egyptian, Ethiopian and Rwandan contingents in Darfur by June, Williamson said. He noted that the Ethiopians and Rwandans are already participating in U.S.-sponsored training prior to their deployment.

While the U.S. supports the U.N. objective of deploying the best-equipped troops possible, Williamson said, "it seems that some U.N. practices may hinder deployment."

He explained in a telephone interview that the United Nations normally requires that a peacekeeping battalion be able to sustain itself by having its own equipment, the ability to maintain it, and to maintain the camps for troops.

The United States will continue to help troops from contributing countries to become self-sustaining, Williamson said, but in the meantime the U.S. wants the U.N. to provide short-term maintenance and support for the peacekeepers.

"Our point is that they have $1.28 billion just for UNAMID, and they've spent only a fraction of it and the fiscal year is going to end" in June, Williamson said, using the initials of the AU-U.N. force.

"So 75 percent of the year's gone by and we're told they've spent just 25 percent. Yet, they don't have the capacity to absorb troops at the rate they can be made available," he said.

Williamson said the AU-U.N. force only added 290 peacekeepers since Jan. 1 "and that is just unacceptable for the people of Darfur who are suffering."

"Peacekeepers on the ground are one of the tangible ways we can change the dynamic in Darfur," he said.

If all African troops that have been pledged were deployed, there could be 18,000 troops in Darfur by the end of the year, he said.

At Sudan's insistence, the U.N. Security Council agreed that the force would be predominantly African.

Williamson said the Sudanese government also continues to raise impediments to deployment of the force. He said the U.S. and other countries that are "friends" of the AU-U.N. force are trying to deal with the government of Sudan to solve them.
]]> Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:51:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/352681 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/352679
About 1,200 delegates from 163 countries have gathered to begin engineering a new international pact on climate change to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

Warren Evans, director of the World Bank's environment department, said the initiative was part of a three-year scheme aimed at providing low-interest loans for clean technology, climate change adaptation and sustainable forestry management projects in developing countries, which are the most vulnerable to climate-change effects.

The United States, England and Japan had already pledged to allocate the money to the bank's new climate change fund, he said.

''We have targeted to get over five billion US dollars,'' Mr Evans said.

The UN and NGOs would help design a mechanism to manage the fund.

The bank expects to conclude discussions on arrangements, including securing financial pledges from donors, at the meeting of G8 environmental ministers in Tokyo next month.

The loan scheme is likely to get approval from the World Bank's executive board in June, he said.

Climate change activists, however, were sceptical, saying the scheme could overlap with the climate change adaptation fund set up under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The UNFCCC's fund also aims to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation activities in developing countries. The money come from a levy collected from the Kyoto Protocol's clean development mechanism (CDM) projects, which is expected to reach 500 million dollars in 2012.

However, there is looming concern that the current level of funding will be insufficient to address the future financial burden needed for climate change adaptation and mitigation worldwide.

Antonio Hill, Oxfam's senior policy adviser, said the World Bank's scheme could paralyse the Bali Action Plan on the UNFCCC adaptation fund.

The funds should be made available as grants, not as loans, because developing countries had suffered enough from the impacts of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions by the rich countries.

''[The scheme] is like you drive a car into someone's house and cause damage, but then you offer a loan to the houseowner to make repairs,'' he said.

The World Bank's environmental chief, however, insisted its climate change fund will not clash with the UNFCCC's adaptation fund.

''If we find any overlapping, we will avoid it. But we don't think it overlaps,'' said Mr Evans.

Member countries had a problem in seeking financial support from the UN adaptation fund as the process was time-consuming, but the bank's fund will be much easier to access.

Mr Evans played down concerns the fund would be dominated by donor countries. Developing countries and NGOs will be invited to take part in the formulation and management of the fund, he said.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/02Apr2008_news14.php
]]> Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:49:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/352679 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/352677
Today, Environmental Defense Fund joined with a dozen states and ten other non-profit organizations to file suit to require the EPA to comply with the Supreme Court's decision and issue its determination within 60 days.

The EPA is defying the Supreme Court and endangering our economy, our environment, and our health. The law and the science are clear: The EPA must regulate global warming causing pollution.

Instead, as today's Washington Post editorial reports, EPA administrator Stephen Johnson has spent the last year "making decisions that increased U.S. contributions to global warming." This includes denying California's waiver request to cut global warming pollution from automobiles -- an unprecedented step that derailed similar efforts in 11 other states.

For more background on the case, read our Climate 411 blog post.

Global warming is the most urgent environmental threat facing the planet today. We have a chance to solve this crisis, but we need national action now to unleash the clean energy technologies that will reinvent energy and stop global warming.

We will keep you posted on this case and our larger campaign to pass a national cap on America's global warming pollution this year.

]]> Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:44:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/352677 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/352671
It was at James Ajayi Crescent in Isheri, a suburb of Lagos, in February this year At one of the numerous privately dug wells where submersible machines pump water to overhead tanks for sale, a man appeared as if he wanted to fetch some water.

The street is inhabited also by nationals of Togo, Ghana and some other West African countries, who roast groundnuts for sale to people whose take home pays could not take them to the bus stops. Two children of Hausa settlers in the area were playing hide and seek nearby, a game that intermittently took them off the busy thoroughfare.
The man who came pretending to be interested in fetching water had been watching the children with the leer of an accomplished thief. After waiting patiently for a while, an evil spirit, perhaps, suddenly possessed him. He grabbed the younger of the two kids, put him in his bucket and balanced it on his head.
But while the boy in the bucket was struggling, causing the container on the man’s head to shake, his elder brother kept shouting, inviting passers-by to help rescue his younger one who was in the bucket. “This man is not carrying water in that container,” the boy screamed, panted and pointed. He added: “It is my younger brother that this man is carrying.”
When he persisted, inhabitants of the street decided to intervene. They ordered the man to put down the receptacle on his head. Pronto! the boy was let out of the bucket. Were it not for the intervention of cops from Isheri Police Station, the kidnapper would have been lynched by the mob.
However, Abiodun Lekuti, a 68-year-old man who was declared missing in Epe since 7 February, was not that lucky. Before leaving home that day, he informed his wife that he was going to pray with a colleague of his. But the wife’s hope of her husband’s return started feeding on itself. When the wife eventually set eyes on her husband, it was his corpse. Most disastrous was the fact that the head, hands and the private organs of Lekuti had been cut off by suspected ritualists. The corpse was recovered in Owode, near Ogombo, Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State. As Miss Muyinat Abiodun, daughter of the deceased explained to the News Agency of Nigeria, the other parts of her father’s body were “concealed in a sack and buried.”

http://thenewsng.com/article/272
]]> Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:28:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/352671 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/352447 Failing is a much more sobering and enlightening experience.

– Michael Eisner, entertainment executive

]]> Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:50:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/352447 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333 http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/352175
It is always good to know that without God, you are plainly wasting your time. In short, you are not living. The Bible told me that many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivered him out of them all. Are you facing "afflictions?" I am getting this in my spirit as I write. The Book of JAMES asked this question,"Is any afflicted, let him pray. Pray!!!

God knows what we are passing through but you must open your mouth and talk to Him about your needs.

Let us go straight to our today's Word:

1. Jacob didn't know who he was until God told him. You don't know who you
are until you hear from God about your person. Have you made an
effort to ask the ONE who created you about who you actually are?

2. Jacob,in all his life, he'd been labelled a "deceiver" until the LORD
explained to him that he was a prince with God.(Gen 32:28)
You are also a prince with God if you blow your nose very fine. Trust me,
God knows you and He can locate you anytime.

3. Becoming a christian is the work of a moment but learning to depend
on God is the work of a lif etime. I am still learning and fearful about Him.

4.That's why you can walk with Him (God); yet limp in certain areas. Your
limping is what makes you to say words like these:

(a) If God can use me, He can use anybody
(b) If God can call me, He can also choose anybody because I once was a trash.
(c) If God can do it for me, He can also do it for you.

5. It reminds you that you are still a work in progress and forces you to lean
on God and less on yourself and man. Man will disappoint you. God will not.

6. Listen to Paul as you read (2 Corinthians 12:7-9)

7. Your limp like Jacob's is just a testimony to what God has brought you
through. It is a proof that He has touched you.

May the Holy Spirit's friendship be yours in Jesus' Name.

I am also getting in my spirit that many of the children of God are living a life
of unfrorgiveness. This is indeed stealing your blessings. We must obey the
Word of God concerning unforgiveness.

If you are weak in forgiving others, how do you expect God to forgive you and direct your path? Let go today. Forgive that person who has hurt you so bad.

Get him or her out of your mind. Where you cannot handle this, I suggest you ask God for His grace to remove this spirit out of you or
pray for that person/s everytime. Don't pray for retaliation for God will not answer you

Be careful with your spirit when you are praying for this person.

Release him or her out of your mind and ask God to fill that emptiness with His Holy Spirit and trust me, God will do it. How He will remove this robbery
spirit from your heart will even surprise you. Do that for me I plead with you so that you will get the best from God.
]]> Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:54:00 EDT http://plato123.tigblog.org/post/352175 5.4833333 7.03333335.48333337.0333333