Famine in East Africa - Alan Taylor - In Focus - The Atlantic:
'via Blog this'
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Jerome Delay/Associated PressChina’s overseas farmland purchases have little to do with the famine in East Africa.
More In Africa
China and Gadhafi Not as Friendly as Some Assume
China's Other Problem with Protests Abroad
Bank: China Africa Investment to Jump 70% by 2015
China Watch: Mummies Remade, What 'China Model'?
China Watch: Hospital Rampage, African Investment, Going Nuclear
When it comes to famine in Africa, China seems an easy target for critics of its rising outbound investments. It’s not much of a secret that the Chinese have been swiftly stepping up their investment profile on the continent, including enough forays into Africa’s agricultural sector that a senior Chinese envoy in June took pains to reassure reporters that the government has not been encouraging Chinese farmers to move to the continent.
It’s one thing to invest overseas in search of energy or metals, the more usual remit of resource-hungry growing nations. Agriculture is far more sensitive ground, as it’s tightly bound up with a basic human need, land ownership and deep-seated suspicions of foreign control.
And so it was that a senior Beijing spokesman on Wednesday found himself responding, in scolding terms, to an apparent accusation by a German diplomat that Chinese land acquisitions have at least partly been responsible for famine in Africa. Shen Danyang, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, described the comments by Germany’s Africa policy coordinator as “nonsense,” and asserted that China’s investments in the continent were meant to help Africa raise its agricultural production capacity. “I can say that almost not a single grain of rice has been sent from Africa back to China,” he declared.
In an interview last month with a German newspaper, Guenter Nooke had suggested the causes of the catastrophe in Africa were partly man-made. “In the case of Ethiopia there is a suspicion that the large-scale land purchases by foreign companies, or states such as China which want to carry out industrial agriculture there, are very attractive for a small (African) elite,” he said.
Nooke said the Chinese farm investments were focused on exports – which he said threatened African smallholdings and livelihoods – but also added: “Not everything the Chinese are doing in Africa is bad… Chinese investment has perhaps an advantage: it will show how industrial farming in Africa can be carried out effectively.”
Taken as a whole, Nooke’s comments could be described as a broad criticism of cross-border land purchases as a matter of government policy. But he may have been on more shaky ground when singling out China as growing food for export from Africa land. Judging from official customs records, China in fact has consumed very little in the way of agricultural output from East Africa. According to customs statistics, China last year only imported 32,583 tons of a canola byproduct from Ethiopia – epicenter of the current famine – and hasn’t imported any farm product from any East African nation so far this year.
China does regularly import rubber from West African countries like Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone, and has significant trade deals in metals like iron ore and copper. But when it comes to grains from Africa, it appears Mr. Shen’s riposte was accurate, even if a tad shrill (his full comments also included details of China’s aid donations to the East Africa famine).
China’s practice of the public relations craft in Africa, a continent where many a global power has seen its reputation fall to ruin, has at best been patchy in recent years, running the gamut from rocky lows to more sophisticated heights. The Economist in a May article this year reckoned that “China is by far the largest investor (in overseas farmland purchases), buying or leasing twice as much as anyone else.”
With limited arable land and rising consumer demand likely to push China to purchase even more farmland overseas in the future, the fuss over its role in foreign land deals, whether justified or not, isn’t about to go away.
– Chuin-Wei Yap
More In Africa
China and Gadhafi Not as Friendly as Some Assume
China's Other Problem with Protests Abroad
Bank: China Africa Investment to Jump 70% by 2015
China Watch: Mummies Remade, What 'China Model'?
China Watch: Hospital Rampage, African Investment, Going Nuclear
When it comes to famine in Africa, China seems an easy target for critics of its rising outbound investments. It’s not much of a secret that the Chinese have been swiftly stepping up their investment profile on the continent, including enough forays into Africa’s agricultural sector that a senior Chinese envoy in June took pains to reassure reporters that the government has not been encouraging Chinese farmers to move to the continent.
It’s one thing to invest overseas in search of energy or metals, the more usual remit of resource-hungry growing nations. Agriculture is far more sensitive ground, as it’s tightly bound up with a basic human need, land ownership and deep-seated suspicions of foreign control.
And so it was that a senior Beijing spokesman on Wednesday found himself responding, in scolding terms, to an apparent accusation by a German diplomat that Chinese land acquisitions have at least partly been responsible for famine in Africa. Shen Danyang, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, described the comments by Germany’s Africa policy coordinator as “nonsense,” and asserted that China’s investments in the continent were meant to help Africa raise its agricultural production capacity. “I can say that almost not a single grain of rice has been sent from Africa back to China,” he declared.
In an interview last month with a German newspaper, Guenter Nooke had suggested the causes of the catastrophe in Africa were partly man-made. “In the case of Ethiopia there is a suspicion that the large-scale land purchases by foreign companies, or states such as China which want to carry out industrial agriculture there, are very attractive for a small (African) elite,” he said.
Nooke said the Chinese farm investments were focused on exports – which he said threatened African smallholdings and livelihoods – but also added: “Not everything the Chinese are doing in Africa is bad… Chinese investment has perhaps an advantage: it will show how industrial farming in Africa can be carried out effectively.”
Taken as a whole, Nooke’s comments could be described as a broad criticism of cross-border land purchases as a matter of government policy. But he may have been on more shaky ground when singling out China as growing food for export from Africa land. Judging from official customs records, China in fact has consumed very little in the way of agricultural output from East Africa. According to customs statistics, China last year only imported 32,583 tons of a canola byproduct from Ethiopia – epicenter of the current famine – and hasn’t imported any farm product from any East African nation so far this year.
China does regularly import rubber from West African countries like Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone, and has significant trade deals in metals like iron ore and copper. But when it comes to grains from Africa, it appears Mr. Shen’s riposte was accurate, even if a tad shrill (his full comments also included details of China’s aid donations to the East Africa famine).
China’s practice of the public relations craft in Africa, a continent where many a global power has seen its reputation fall to ruin, has at best been patchy in recent years, running the gamut from rocky lows to more sophisticated heights. The Economist in a May article this year reckoned that “China is by far the largest investor (in overseas farmland purchases), buying or leasing twice as much as anyone else.”
With limited arable land and rising consumer demand likely to push China to purchase even more farmland overseas in the future, the fuss over its role in foreign land deals, whether justified or not, isn’t about to go away.
– Chuin-Wei Yap
T.E.D. Talks Regarding Africa1.
African affairs are clouded by frequent overgeneralizations, misportrayals, misconceptions and myths regarding its issues and its people. The following speeches may play a part in dispelling some out of date notions about the Dark Continent.
John Kasaona: How poachers became caretakers
Namibian activist John Kasaona instituted an innovative initiative to reinvigorate his beloved homeland, particularly the Kunene Region. Benefiting both humans and the endangered animals sharing habitats with them, he’s developed caretaker positions for those needing steady employment. Some of these individuals once worked as poachers, now using their knowledge for preserving the species they once nearly wiped out.
2.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: Want to help Africa? Do business here
Nigeria’s first female Finance Minister shatters many of the misconceptions regarding African economics and entrepreneurship, stories which rarely reach foreign shores. She believes that truly sustainable support doesn’t come from sending money, food, or clothing donations, but rather investors helping businesses get started. In this illuminating TED Talk, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala presents a more than compelling case for what real aid should strive to accomplish.
3.
Wadah Khanfar: A historic moment in the Arab world
2011 saw many a revolution take place across North Africa, particularly in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, and former Al Jazeera Director General Wadah Khanfar attributes the success to social media. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter empower those pining for democracy to band together and fight “authoritarian regimes” for the rights they so desperately want. Even though his media outlet “do[es] not create revolutions,” he discusses how enthused both he and his fellow reporters were to cover such major moments in Arab history.
4.
Emily Oster flips our thinking on AIDS
This TED lecture is sure to spark both thought and maybe a little bit of controversy, as it dismantles many common assumptions people hold about HIV and AIDS. Only Uganda and its ABC program promoting safe sex have successfully lessened the epidemic, and economic principles (not economics itself) might very well explain why the initiative works. Seeing as how public health is, in fact, both a political and an economic issue, this approach does make perfect sense.
5.
William Kamkwamba: How I harnessed the wind
African studies majors (or minors!) with a particular affinity for alternative energy will find this young man’s story absolutely riveting; hopefully others will, too! In 2001, when he was 14, Malawi suffered a horrendous famine, which threatened William Kamkwamba’s family’s farm. With spare parts, an innovative mind, and an overwhelming love, he constructed a windmill that powered everything and guided them through a devastating time.
6.
Franco Sacchi tours Nigeria’s booming Nollywood
The world’s third largest film industry sits nestled – and, sadly, largely unknown — in Nigeria, where a “grassroots movement” generated nearly 2,000 movies in 2006 alone. It creates jobs by the “thousands, if not tens of thousands” and (as of the time of Franco Sacchi’s TED Talk) is worth about $250 million. Unlike its Hollywood and Bollywood counterparts, guerilla filmmaking reigns supreme here, with creative crews battling both time crunches and the government to produce entire features in only (if not less than!) a week.
7.
Mother and daughter doctor-heroes: Hawa Abdi + Deqo Mohamed
Philanthropy and courage run in the family, as this duo of inspiring doctors and activists reveal in their hopeful Somali story. Despite civil war and the crippling marginalization of females, the two reached out to all refugees they could through medicine and education alike, establishing a hospital and school to meet two major basic human rights. Their outstanding efforts established an oasis of love and peace within a nation shredded by subjugation.
8.
Eleni Gabre-Madhin on Ethiopian economics
Ethiopia receives more food donations and aid than any other country in the world, but actually boasts numerous opportunities for farmers. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, an economist, wants to organize the country’s first low-risk commodities market, starting with agricultural investments and development. She believes that doing so will not only establish more sustainable jobs, but also reduce Ethiopian dependence on foreign food support and encourage higher household incomes.
9.
Marisa Fick-Jordan shares the wonder of Zulu wire art
Although Marisa Fick-Jordan’s TED Talk lasts less than three minutes, what she has to share will surely delight art aficionados. Zulu’s tradition of wire weaving not only captures the society’s unique and ancient aesthetic, it provides some fantastic economic opportunities as well. Craftspeople skilled in the intricate medium reach out to buyers worldwide, earning money while simultaneously encouraging the gorgeous art style’s perpetuation.
10.
Corneille Ewango is a hero of the Congo forest
This esteemed botanist rightfully receives much acclaim for his work in the Congo Basin’s Okapi Wildlife Reserve, which, as its name suggests, focuses on keeping the eponymous endangered species alive. Part of his responsibilities include protecting the safehaven’s fragile flora and fauna from poachers and servicemen with callous attitudes towards environmental initiatives. And he’s done pretty well thus far, here sharing some of the occasionally ghastly narratives about destruction and human entitlement issues.
11.
Chris Abani on the stories of Africa
Poetry kept Nigerian activist Chris Abani stable, sane and self-expressive during his three stints as a political prisoner. One of his TED Talks sees him perusing the African continent for more stories, both similar to and different from his own, that might help him find some semblance of unity across an incredibly diverse continent. What results is an absolutely haunting, necessary, beautiful lecture illuminating very human, very universal emotions gleaned from unique experiences.
12.
Dr. Seyi Oyesola tours a hospital in Nigeria
Nearly every bit of equipment in the Nigerian teaching hospital featured here came courtesy of donations, either secondhand or via generous philanthropic gestures, or hacking. Because of these lacking and sometimes inadequate resources, those receiving medical education in such facilities might not be able to assist patients to the best of their abilities before or after graduation. The world’s most economically deprived regions have been and currently are experiencing a healthcare nightmare, and without support to get them started with the most advanced technologies, things might get worse.
13.
Vusi Mahlasela sings “Thula Mama”
One of South Africa’s most effective creative voices fighting apartheid performs a gorgeous piece at TEDGlobal 2007. He devotes this “Thula Mama” to his grandmother and shares an incredible story of her standing up to “harassing” soldiers with boiling water and threats. And, extending beyond that, all women who fight for their families and other loved ones in times of great hardship and upheaval.
14.
Zeresenay Alemseged looks for humanity’s roots
No African studies students’ education is complete without anthropological lessons, particularly when it comes to the community’s attempts to discover human evolutionary origins somewhere on the continent. Here, paleoanthropologist Zeresenay Alemseged summarizes the story of Selam, the 3.3-million-year-skeleton of a three-year-old girl discovered in the Ethiopian badlands. The discovery doesn’t answer the question of where, exactly, mankind started, but it certainly brings scientists much closer to finding out!
15.
Andrew Mwenda takes a new look at Africa
Presented by a respected, experienced journalist, one of TED’s most important, provocative discussions about the African continent confronts many of the myths and misconceptions perpetuated worldwide. Most tend to view it as a rather uniform cesspool of nonstop violence, human rights violations, famine, poverty, and AIDS/HIV; obviously, these issues are present and very much deserve addressing. But Africa also provides both the citizenries that call it home as well as intercontinental investors some prime chances to promote peace, equality and opportunity – it’s all a matter of being willing to take the risk and open up to promising people.
Compiled by:
http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2011/12/07/15-terrific-ted-talks-african-studies-students/
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Zorba the Greek lived "the full catastrophe".
“This is true happiness: to have no ambition and to work like a horse as if you had every ambition. To live far from men, not to need them and yet to love them. To have the stars above, the land to your left and the sea to your right and to realize of a sudden that in your heart, life has accomplished its final miracle: it has become a fairy tale.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“For I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean sea.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“When everything goes wrong, what a joy to test your soul and see if it has endurance and courage! An invisible and all-powerful enemy—some call him God, others the Devil, seem to rush upon us to destroy us; but we are not destroyed.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Look, one day I had gone to a little village. An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree. ‘What, grandfather!’ I exclaimed. ‘Planting an almond tree?’ And he, bent as he was, turned around and said: ‘My son, I carry on as if I should never die.’ I replied: ‘And I carry on as if I was going to die any minute.’
Which of us was right, boss?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“I was happy, I knew that. While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realize - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“If a woman sleeps alone it puts a shame on all men. God has a very big heart, but there is one sin He will not forgive. If a woman calls a man to her bed and he will not go.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“the highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“When shall I at last retire into solitude alone, without companions, without joy and without sorrow, with only the sacred certainty that all is a dream? When, in my rags—without desires—shall I retire contented into the mountains? When, seeing that my body is merely sickness and crime, age and death, shall I—free, fearless, and blissful—retire to the forest? When? When, oh when?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all, in my view, is not to have one.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“All those who actually live the mysteries of life haven't the time to write, and all those who have the time don't live them! D'you see?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Free yourself from one passion to be dominated by another and nobler one. But is not that, too, a form of slavery? To sacrifice oneself to an idea, to a race, to God? Or does it mean that the higher the model the longer the longer the tether of our slavery?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Once more there sounded within me the terrible warning that there is only one life for all men, that there is only one life for all men, that there is no other and that all that can be enjoyed must be enjoyed here. In eternity no other chance will be given to us.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Free yourself from one passion to be dominated by another and nobler one. But is not that, too, a form of slavery? To sacrifice oneself to an idea, to a race, to God? Or does it mean that the higher the model the longer the longer the tether of our slavery?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Once more there sounded within me the terrible warning that there is only one life for all men, that there is only one life for all men, that there is no other and that all that can be enjoyed must be enjoyed here. In eternity no other chance will be given to us.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“There is only one sin god will not forgive Boss, and that is to deny a woman who is in wanting ~ Zorba”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
Day's Quotes - Nikos Kazanzakis
“I hope nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“This is true happiness: to have no ambition and to work like a horse as if you had every ambition. To live far from men, not to need them and yet to love them. To have the stars above, the land to your left and the sea to your right and to realize of a sudden that in your heart, life has accomplished its final miracle: it has become a fairy tale.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“You can knock on a deaf man's door forever.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“I said to the almond tree, 'Sister, speak to me of God.' And the almond tree blossomed.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco
“Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. . . . All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“All my life one of my greatest desires has been to travel-to see and touch unknown countries, to swim in unknown seas, to circle the globe, observing new lands, seas, people, and ideas with insatiable appetite, to see everything for the first time and for the last time, casting a slow, prolonged glance, then to close my eyes and feel the riches deposit themselves inside me calmly or stormily according to their pleasure, until time passes them at last through its fine sieve, straining the quintessence out of all the joys and sorrows.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco
“For I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean sea.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“When everything goes wrong, what a joy to test your soul and see if it has endurance and courage! An invisible and all-powerful enemy—some call him God, others the Devil, seem to rush upon us to destroy us; but we are not destroyed.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their
own.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“You will, Judas, my brother. God will give you the strength, as much as you lack, because it is necessary—it is necessary for me to be killed and for you to betray me. We two must save the world. Help me."
Judas bowed his head. After a moment he asked, "If you had to betray your master, would you do it?"
Jesus reflected for a long time. Finally he said, "No, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to. That is why God pitied me and gave me the easier task: to be crucified.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ
“Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Look, one day I had gone to a little village. An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree. ‘What, grandfather!’ I exclaimed. ‘Planting an almond tree?’ And he, bent as he was, turned around and said: ‘My son, I carry on as if I should never die.’ I replied: ‘And I carry on as if I was going to die any minute.’
Which of us was right, boss?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“I was happy, I knew that. While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realize - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint the paradise, then in you go.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Man is able, and has the duty, to reach the furthest point on the road he has chosen. Only by means of hope can we attain what is beyond hope.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco
“When an almond tree became covered with blossoms in the heart of winter, all the trees around it began to jeer. 'What vanity,' they screamed, 'what insolence! Just think, it believes it can bring spring in this way!' The flowers of the almond tree blushed for shame. 'Forgive me, my sisters,' said the tree. 'I swear I did not want to blossom, but suddenly I felt a warm springtime breeze in my heart.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Saint Francis
“Let your youth have free reign, it won't come again, so be bold and no repenting.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“When everyone drowns and I'm the only one to escape, God is protecting me. When everyone else is saved and I'm the only one to drown, God is protecting me then too.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ
“We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“Truly, everything in this world depended on time. Time ripened all. If you had time, you succeeded in working the human mud internally and turning it into spirit. Then you did not fear death. If you did not have time, you perished.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ
“If a woman sleeps alone it puts a shame on all men. God has a very big heart, but there is one sin He will not forgive. If a woman calls a man to her bed and he will not go.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Reach what you cannot”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco
“the highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“When shall I at last retire into solitude alone, without companions, without joy and without sorrow, with only the sacred certainty that all is a dream? When, in my rags—without desires—shall I retire contented into the mountains? When, seeing that my body is merely sickness and crime, age and death, shall I—free, fearless, and blissful—retire to the forest? When? When, oh when?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Throughout my life my greatest benefactors have been my travels and my dreams. Very few men, living or dead, have helped me in my struggles.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. . . . All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“All my life one of my greatest desires has been to travel-to see and touch unknown countries, to swim in unknown seas, to circle the globe, observing new lands, seas, people, and ideas with insatiable appetite, to see everything for the first time and for the last time, casting a slow, prolonged glance, then to close my eyes and feel the riches deposit themselves inside me calmly or stormily according to their pleasure, until time passes them at last through its fine sieve, straining the quintessence out of all the joys and sorrows.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco
“For I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Happy is the man, I thought, who, before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean sea.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“When everything goes wrong, what a joy to test your soul and see if it has endurance and courage! An invisible and all-powerful enemy—some call him God, others the Devil, seem to rush upon us to destroy us; but we are not destroyed.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their
own.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“You will, Judas, my brother. God will give you the strength, as much as you lack, because it is necessary—it is necessary for me to be killed and for you to betray me. We two must save the world. Help me."
Judas bowed his head. After a moment he asked, "If you had to betray your master, would you do it?"
Jesus reflected for a long time. Finally he said, "No, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to. That is why God pitied me and gave me the easier task: to be crucified.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ
“Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Look, one day I had gone to a little village. An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree. ‘What, grandfather!’ I exclaimed. ‘Planting an almond tree?’ And he, bent as he was, turned around and said: ‘My son, I carry on as if I should never die.’ I replied: ‘And I carry on as if I was going to die any minute.’
Which of us was right, boss?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“I was happy, I knew that. While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realize - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint the paradise, then in you go.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Man is able, and has the duty, to reach the furthest point on the road he has chosen. Only by means of hope can we attain what is beyond hope.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco
“When an almond tree became covered with blossoms in the heart of winter, all the trees around it began to jeer. 'What vanity,' they screamed, 'what insolence! Just think, it believes it can bring spring in this way!' The flowers of the almond tree blushed for shame. 'Forgive me, my sisters,' said the tree. 'I swear I did not want to blossom, but suddenly I felt a warm springtime breeze in my heart.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Saint Francis
“Let your youth have free reign, it won't come again, so be bold and no repenting.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“When everyone drowns and I'm the only one to escape, God is protecting me. When everyone else is saved and I'm the only one to drown, God is protecting me then too.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ
“We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“Truly, everything in this world depended on time. Time ripened all. If you had time, you succeeded in working the human mud internally and turning it into spirit. Then you did not fear death. If you did not have time, you perished.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ
“If a woman sleeps alone it puts a shame on all men. God has a very big heart, but there is one sin He will not forgive. If a woman calls a man to her bed and he will not go.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Reach what you cannot”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco
“the highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“When shall I at last retire into solitude alone, without companions, without joy and without sorrow, with only the sacred certainty that all is a dream? When, in my rags—without desires—shall I retire contented into the mountains? When, seeing that my body is merely sickness and crime, age and death, shall I—free, fearless, and blissful—retire to the forest? When? When, oh when?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Throughout my life my greatest benefactors have been my travels and my dreams. Very few men, living or dead, have helped me in my struggles.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“I say one thing, you write another, and those who read you understand still something else! I say: cross, death, kingdom of heaven, God...and what do you understand? Each of you attaches his own suffering, interests and desires to each of these sacred words, and my words disappear, my soul is lost. I can't stand it any longer!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ
“My principle anguish and the source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ
“Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all, in my view, is not to have one.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Freedom was my first great desire. The second, which remains hidden within me to this day, tormenting me, was the desire for sanctity. Hero together with saint: such is mankind's supreme model.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco
“Beauty is merciless. You do not look at it, it looks at you and does not forgive.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco
“Beauty is merciless. You do not look at it, it looks at you and does not forgive.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“Ideal teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“With the passage of days in this godly isolation [desert], my heart grew calm. It seemed to fill with answers. I did not ask questions any more; I was certain. Everything - where we came from, where we are going, what our purpose is on earth - struck me as extremely sure and simple in this God-trodden isolation. Little by little my blood took on the godly rhythm. Matins, Divine Liturgy, vespers, psalmodies, the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening, the constellations suspended like chandeliers each night over the monastery: all came and went, came and went in obedience to eternal laws, and drew the blood of man into the same placid rhythm. I saw the world as a tree, a gigantic poplar, and myself as a green leaf clinging to a branch with my slender stalk. When God's wind blew, I hopped and danced, together with the entire tree.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“All those who actually live the mysteries of life haven't the time to write, and all those who have the time don't live them! D'you see?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Free yourself from one passion to be dominated by another and nobler one. But is not that, too, a form of slavery? To sacrifice oneself to an idea, to a race, to God? Or does it mean that the higher the model the longer the longer the tether of our slavery?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
Nikos Kazantzakis quotes (showing 51-80 of 80)
“Once more there sounded within me the terrible warning that there is only one life for all men, that there is only one life for all men, that there is no other and that all that can be enjoyed must be enjoyed here. In eternity no other chance will be given to us.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“We are not men, to have need of another, an eternal life; we are women, and for us one moment with man we love is everlasting Paradise, one moment far from the man we love is everlasting hell. It is here on earth that we women love out eternity”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ
Yes, the purpose of earth is not life, it is not man, earth has existed without these, and it will live on without them. They are but the ephemeral sparks of its violent whirling.
Let us unite, let us hold each other tightly, let us merge our hearts, let us create –so long as the warmth of this earth endures, so long as no earthquakes, cataclysms, icebergs or comets come to destroy us – let us create for earth a brain and a heart, let us give a human meaning to the superhuman struggle. ”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“Discipline is the highest of all virtues. Only so may strength and desire be counterbalanced and the endeavors of man bear fruit.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Rock Garden
“There is only one sin god will not forgive Boss, and that is to deny a woman who is in wanting ~ Zorba”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Overdraw me Lord, and who cares if I break!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ
“Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ
“Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“The canary began to sing again. The sun had struck it, and its throat and tiny breast had filled with song. Francis gazed at it for a long time, not speaking, his mouth hanging half opened, his eyes dimmed with tears.
"The canary is like man's soul," he whispered finally. "It sees bars round it, but instead if despairing, it sings. It sings, and wait and see, Brother Leo: one day its song shall break the bars.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Saint Francis
“My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“The canary began to sing again. The sun had struck it, and its throat and tiny breast had filled with song. Francis gazed at it for a long time, not speaking, his mouth hanging half opened, his eyes dimmed with tears.
"The canary is like man's soul," he whispered finally. "It sees bars round it, but instead if despairing, it sings. It sings, and wait and see, Brother Leo: one day its song shall break the bars.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Saint Francis
“My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, and radishes, and out comes sighs, laughter, and dreams.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“The people cast themselves down by the fuming boards
while servants cut the roast, mixed jars of wine and water,
and all the gods flew past like the night-breaths of spring.
The chattering female flocks sat down by farther tables,
their fresh prismatic garments gleaming in the moon
as though a crowd of haughty peacocks played in moonlight.
The queen’s throne softly spread with white furs of fox
gaped desolate and bare, for Penelope felt ashamed
to come before her guests after so much murder.
Though all the guests were ravenous, they still refrained,
turning their eyes upon their silent watchful lord
till he should spill wine in libation for the Immortals.
The king then filled a brimming cup, stood up and raised
it high till in the moon the embossed adornments gleamed:
Athena, dwarfed and slender, wrought in purest gold,
pursued around the cup with double-pointed spear
dark lowering herds of angry gods and hairy demons;
she smiled and the sad tenderness of her lean face,
and her embittered fearless glance, seemed almost human.
Star-eyed Odysseus raised Athena’s goblet high
and greeted all, but spoke in a beclouded mood:
“In all my wandering voyages and torturous strife,
the earth, the seas, the winds fought me with frenzied rage;
I was in danger often, both through joy and grief,
of losing priceless goodness, man’s most worthy face.
I raised my arms to the high heavens and cried for help,
but on my head gods hurled their lightning bolts, and laughed.
I then clasped Mother Earth, but she changed many shapes,
and whether as earthquake, beast, or woman, rushed to eat me;
then like a child I gave my hopes to the sea in trust,
piled on my ship my stubbornness, my cares, my virtues,
the poor remaining plunder of god-fighting man,
and then set sail; but suddenly a wild storm burst,
and when I raised my eyes, the sea was strewn with wreckage.
As I swam on, alone between sea and sky,
with but my crooked heart for dog and company,
I heard my mind, upon the crumpling battlements
about my head, yelling with flailing crimson spear.
Earth, sea, and sky rushed backward; I remained alone
with a horned bow slung down my shoulder, shorn of gods
and hopes, a free man standing in the wilderness.
Old comrades, O young men, my island’s newest sprouts,
I drink not to the gods but to man’s dauntless mind.”
All shuddered, for the daring toast seemed sacrilege,
and suddenly the hungry people shrank in spirit;
They did not fully understand the impious words
but saw flames lick like red curls about his savage head.
The smell of roast was overpowering, choice meats steamed,
and his bold speech was soon forgotten in hunger’s pangs;
all fell to eating ravenously till their brains reeled.
Under his lowering eyebrows Odysseus watched them sharply:
"This is my people, a mess of bellies and stinking breath!
These are my own minds, hands, and thighs, my loins and necks!"
He muttered in his thorny beard, held back his hunger
far from the feast and licked none of the steaming food.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Africa Rising
The hopeful continent: Africa rising | The Economist:
THE shops are stacked six feet high with goods, the streets outside are jammed with customers and salespeople are sweating profusely under the onslaught. But this is not a high street during the Christmas-shopping season in the rich world. It is the Onitsha market in southern Nigeria, every day of the year. Many call it the world’s biggest. Up to 3m people go there daily to buy rice and soap, computers and construction equipment. It is a hub for traders from the Gulf of Guinea, a region blighted by corruption, piracy, poverty and disease but also home to millions of highly motivated entrepreneurs and increasingly prosperous consumers.
Over the past decade six of the world’s ten fastest-growing countries were African. In eight of the past ten years, Africa has grown faster than East Asia, including Japan. Even allowing for the knock-on effect of the northern hemisphere’s slowdown, the IMF expects Africa to grow by 6% this year and nearly 6% in 2012, about the same as Asia.
The commodities boom is partly responsible. In 2000-08 around a quarter of Africa’s growth came from higher revenues from natural resources. Favourable demography is another cause. With fertility rates crashing in Asia and Latin America, half of the increase in population over the next 40 years will be in Africa. But the growth also has a lot to do with the manufacturing and service economies that African countries are beginning to develop. The big question is whether Africa can keep that up if demand for commodities drops.
Copper, gold, oil—and a pinch of salt
Optimism about Africa needs to be taken in fairly small doses, for things are still exceedingly bleak in much of the continent. Most Africans live on less than two dollars a day. Food production per person has slumped since independence in the 1960s. The average lifespan in some countries is under 50. Drought and famine persist. The climate is worsening, with deforestation and desertification still on the march.
Some countries praised for their breakneck economic growth, such as Angola and Equatorial Guinea, are oil-sodden kleptocracies. Some that have begun to get economic development right, such as Rwanda and Ethiopia, have become politically noxious. Congo, now undergoing a shoddy election, still looks barely governable and hideously corrupt. Zimbabwe is a scar on the conscience of the rest of southern Africa. South Africa, which used to be a model for the continent, is tainted with corruption; and within the ruling African National Congress there is talk of nationalising land and mines (see article).
Yet against that depressingly familiar backdrop, some fundamental numbers are moving in the right direction (see article). Africa now has a fast-growing middle class: according to Standard Bank, around 60m Africans have an income of $3,000 a year, and 100m will in 2015. The rate of foreign investment has soared around tenfold in the past decade.
China’s arrival has improved Africa’s infrastructure and boosted its manufacturing sector. Other non-Western countries, from Brazil and Turkey to Malaysia and India, are following its lead. Africa could break into the global market for light manufacturing and services such as call centres. Cross-border commerce, long suppressed by political rivalry, is growing, as tariffs fall and barriers to trade are dismantled.
Africa’s enthusiasm for technology is boosting growth. It has more than 600m mobile-phone users—more than America or Europe. Since roads are generally dreadful, advances in communications, with mobile banking and telephonic agro-info, have been a huge boon. Around a tenth of Africa’s land mass is covered by mobile-internet services—a higher proportion than in India. The health of many millions of Africans has also improved, thanks in part to the wider distribution of mosquito nets and the gradual easing of the ravages of HIV/AIDS. Skills are improving: productivity is growing by nearly 3% a year, compared with 2.3% in America.
All this is happening partly because Africa is at last getting a taste of peace and decent government. For three decades after African countries threw off their colonial shackles, not a single one (bar the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius) peacefully ousted a government or president at the ballot box. But since Benin set the mainland trend in 1991, it has happened more than 30 times—far more often than in the Arab world.
Population trends could enhance these promising developments. A bulge of better-educated young people of working age is entering the job market and birth rates are beginning to decline. As the proportion of working-age people to dependents rises, growth should get a boost. Asia enjoyed such a “demographic dividend”, which began three decades ago and is now tailing off. In Africa it is just starting.
Having a lot of young adults is good for any country if its economy is thriving, but if jobs are in short supply it can lead to frustration and violence. Whether Africa’s demography brings a dividend or disaster is largely up to its governments.
More trade than aid
Africa still needs deep reform. Governments should make it easier to start businesses and cut some taxes and collect honestly the ones they impose. Land needs to be taken out of communal ownership and title handed over to individual farmers so that they can get credit and expand. And, most of all, politicians need to keep their noses out of the trough and to leave power when their voters tell them to.
Western governments should open up to trade rather than just dish out aid. America’s African Growth and Opportunity Act, which lowered tariff barriers for many goods, is a good start, but it needs to be widened and copied by other nations. Foreign investors should sign the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which would let Africans see what foreign companies pay for licences to exploit natural resources. African governments should insist on total openness in the deals they strike with foreign companies and governments.
Autocracy, corruption and strife will not disappear overnight. But at a dark time for the world economy, Africa’s progress is a reminder of the transformative promise of growth.
Correction: It was Standard Bank—not the World Bank as we originally wrote—that provided the statistic that some 60m Africans have an income of $3,000 a year. This was corrected on December 5th 2011.
THE shops are stacked six feet high with goods, the streets outside are jammed with customers and salespeople are sweating profusely under the onslaught. But this is not a high street during the Christmas-shopping season in the rich world. It is the Onitsha market in southern Nigeria, every day of the year. Many call it the world’s biggest. Up to 3m people go there daily to buy rice and soap, computers and construction equipment. It is a hub for traders from the Gulf of Guinea, a region blighted by corruption, piracy, poverty and disease but also home to millions of highly motivated entrepreneurs and increasingly prosperous consumers.
Over the past decade six of the world’s ten fastest-growing countries were African. In eight of the past ten years, Africa has grown faster than East Asia, including Japan. Even allowing for the knock-on effect of the northern hemisphere’s slowdown, the IMF expects Africa to grow by 6% this year and nearly 6% in 2012, about the same as Asia.
The commodities boom is partly responsible. In 2000-08 around a quarter of Africa’s growth came from higher revenues from natural resources. Favourable demography is another cause. With fertility rates crashing in Asia and Latin America, half of the increase in population over the next 40 years will be in Africa. But the growth also has a lot to do with the manufacturing and service economies that African countries are beginning to develop. The big question is whether Africa can keep that up if demand for commodities drops.
Optimism about Africa needs to be taken in fairly small doses, for things are still exceedingly bleak in much of the continent. Most Africans live on less than two dollars a day. Food production per person has slumped since independence in the 1960s. The average lifespan in some countries is under 50. Drought and famine persist. The climate is worsening, with deforestation and desertification still on the march.
Some countries praised for their breakneck economic growth, such as Angola and Equatorial Guinea, are oil-sodden kleptocracies. Some that have begun to get economic development right, such as Rwanda and Ethiopia, have become politically noxious. Congo, now undergoing a shoddy election, still looks barely governable and hideously corrupt. Zimbabwe is a scar on the conscience of the rest of southern Africa. South Africa, which used to be a model for the continent, is tainted with corruption; and within the ruling African National Congress there is talk of nationalising land and mines (see article).
Yet against that depressingly familiar backdrop, some fundamental numbers are moving in the right direction (see article). Africa now has a fast-growing middle class: according to Standard Bank, around 60m Africans have an income of $3,000 a year, and 100m will in 2015. The rate of foreign investment has soared around tenfold in the past decade.
China’s arrival has improved Africa’s infrastructure and boosted its manufacturing sector. Other non-Western countries, from Brazil and Turkey to Malaysia and India, are following its lead. Africa could break into the global market for light manufacturing and services such as call centres. Cross-border commerce, long suppressed by political rivalry, is growing, as tariffs fall and barriers to trade are dismantled.
Africa’s enthusiasm for technology is boosting growth. It has more than 600m mobile-phone users—more than America or Europe. Since roads are generally dreadful, advances in communications, with mobile banking and telephonic agro-info, have been a huge boon. Around a tenth of Africa’s land mass is covered by mobile-internet services—a higher proportion than in India. The health of many millions of Africans has also improved, thanks in part to the wider distribution of mosquito nets and the gradual easing of the ravages of HIV/AIDS. Skills are improving: productivity is growing by nearly 3% a year, compared with 2.3% in America.
All this is happening partly because Africa is at last getting a taste of peace and decent government. For three decades after African countries threw off their colonial shackles, not a single one (bar the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius) peacefully ousted a government or president at the ballot box. But since Benin set the mainland trend in 1991, it has happened more than 30 times—far more often than in the Arab world.
Population trends could enhance these promising developments. A bulge of better-educated young people of working age is entering the job market and birth rates are beginning to decline. As the proportion of working-age people to dependents rises, growth should get a boost. Asia enjoyed such a “demographic dividend”, which began three decades ago and is now tailing off. In Africa it is just starting.
Having a lot of young adults is good for any country if its economy is thriving, but if jobs are in short supply it can lead to frustration and violence. Whether Africa’s demography brings a dividend or disaster is largely up to its governments.
More trade than aid
Africa still needs deep reform. Governments should make it easier to start businesses and cut some taxes and collect honestly the ones they impose. Land needs to be taken out of communal ownership and title handed over to individual farmers so that they can get credit and expand. And, most of all, politicians need to keep their noses out of the trough and to leave power when their voters tell them to.
Western governments should open up to trade rather than just dish out aid. America’s African Growth and Opportunity Act, which lowered tariff barriers for many goods, is a good start, but it needs to be widened and copied by other nations. Foreign investors should sign the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which would let Africans see what foreign companies pay for licences to exploit natural resources. African governments should insist on total openness in the deals they strike with foreign companies and governments.
Autocracy, corruption and strife will not disappear overnight. But at a dark time for the world economy, Africa’s progress is a reminder of the transformative promise of growth.
Correction: It was Standard Bank—not the World Bank as we originally wrote—that provided the statistic that some 60m Africans have an income of $3,000 a year. This was corrected on December 5th 2011.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Jacaranda Magic: A photograph by Zihan Kassam
The Kenya Arts Diary 2012. The layout..... Featured Artist on this page is Mary Ogembo
The Freedom to Create Exhibition 2011
www.africancolours.com
Freedom to Create Prize, the 2011 Exhibition is an outdoor photography exhibition being held in Cape Town. The organisers hope to engage new audiences in a dialogue around pressing
social issues that the exhibition brings to light.
social issues that the exhibition brings to light.
Our artist of the week is Hamed OUATTARA, Painter & Designer. In order to create unusual objects inspired by local African experience, Hamid is particularly interested in objects that are round in shape and domed as they lend themselves to several interpretations while retaining traditional character which he then uses to the folds that he wishes.
"I create an African design which is consumed by Africans, drawing on common everyday objects for this market". Hamed OUATTARA, Designer & Painter
Title: Table TV "TABAILYOUMA"
AfricanColours.com
The Kenya Arts Diary: Specifications
One week per double-page spread, giving plenty of space to write and make notes
• One artist per double-page spread, with contacts for every artist featured
• An extra section of blank pages to collect thoughts and ideas
• Contacts for galleries, institutions and sponsors of the arts in Kenya
One of our favourite African Artists Lovemore Kambudzi has donated his painting,' Last Warning, 2010' for charitable purposes in the upcoming Art for AfricaAuction organized by the Africa Foundation. The live auction will be at Sotheby’s New York on November 17, 2011 at 7pm. The retail value is $4,000. The deadline for registering for telephone and absentee bidding during the live auction is 24 hours before the auction (by Wednesday, November16th at 7pm). To register, please visit http://www.artforafrica.org.uk/bid-form/
African Colors Paris Photo Show
Family Album.
Photographer: Alexia Webster, South Africa
"Tired of a world were photos are so often taken but so rarely given, photographer Alexia Webster, together with artist Mike Saal, came up with the idea of creating free outdoor photo studios on street corners around the country.
Th is image of Ebrahiem Josephs was taken at an outdoor ‘formal’ portrait photo studios on the corner of Hercules and Cornwall Streets in the neighborhood of Woodstock, Cape Town. For two days the team invited families, individuals and groups of friends to pose at this professional studio, receiving a free photograph on site to take home with them for their family album."
I love the sense of humor displayed by this picture and the man himself.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
News from Nigeria?
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How Rogue Banker,Erastus Akingbola Transferred N25 Billion To Offshore Accounts- EFCC Witness
November 15, 2011 - 20:05 — siteadmin
caption:Rogue banker, Erastus Akingbola
By Femi Babafemi
The trial of former Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Mr Erastus Akingbola and his associate, Mr. Bayo Dada resumed on Tuesday November 15, 2011 with prosecution witness Jimoh Abdulraheem, a former chief inspector with the bank, detailing how he transferred funds to the offshore account of the 1st accused. Led in evidence by defence counsel, Godwin Obla, Abdulraheem told the court that he was once invited by the EFCC to give statement about the movement of funds from Intercontinental Bank to various companies account on the instruction of Akingbola while he held sway as managing director of Intercontinental Bank. He went on to identify a copy of the statement he wrote on 28 January, 2011. Obla consequently urged the court to Admit the document as exhibit but defence counsel, Felix Fagbohungbe, SAN objected, arguing that he needed time to study the document. The objection was over ruled by the court and the document was admitted as exhibit.
Another document authorising the transfer of 1.3 million pounds was also tendered by Obla. After certifying that he recognises the document, the witness informed the court how he was ordered via an instruction memo to transfer the sum of 1.3 million pounds to the account of a British Law Firm, Fulgers Solicitors. “ I was authorised by Dr Akingbola to inform the Head of Funds Department, prior to the instructions, there were discussions that the said amount be transferred to the account of Tropic Finance limited. The instruction came via a memo and the order was swiftly carried out. Mr Akin Fabunmi who is the Head of Funds Department carried out the instruction,”he stated.
A copy of an unsigned memo conveying Akingbola’s instruction to effect the transfer was given to the witness to confirm if that was the memo containing the instruction. The witness confirmed the document which was subsequently admitted as exhibit.
As to the where about of the originals, Jimoh said all original documents relating to the trial were lost in the cause of investigation. He continued that the instructions were carried out and the funds were transferred to the account of a British Law Firm, called Fulgers Solicitors.Obla asked the witness if there was any evidence to back up what he said. The witness said an electronically generated swift message is attached to the unsigned memo which represents the confirmation of payment. He was asked if he would recognise the said message. He answered in the affirmative and the court handed him a copy of both the message which he confirmed. He said such messages are usually printed out of the computer if foreign account transfers are carried out.
Counsel to Akingbola said the documents tendered are not original and urged the court not to admit them as exhibits.Obla responded saying the originals have been misplaced as stated by the witness in the process of investigation. He referred the court to section 97(1) C of the Evidence Act which said copies of documents can be admitted..
The objection was overruled by the court and the documents were admitted as exhibit
Another document tendered by Obla was a letter written to the bank by one Corporate Securities Nigeria Limited requesting that the bank should make a payment of 10 billion naira for some shares purchased for the bank. The letter listed how the payment was to be made to some companies. These companies are: Tropics Securities, Bankinson Nig. Ltd, and Tropics Properties. The letter was signed by Bayo Dada, who is a co- accused. The witness said that instruction was also carried out as the funds were taken from pre- payment account of the bank and credited to those companies. He said while investigations commenced, the bank management asked him to conduct investigations as to the movement of cheques issued to those companies and it was discovered that the three cheques have been deposited in those companies’ accounts at Access Bank. Further investigations revealed that the companies were linked to Akingbola and his wife, Antonia. Jimoh said the instruction to effect payment was given by Akigbola through verbal instruction. A certain Mr Fabunmi then raised a memo to effect it.
Another 8.6 billion naira was also taken from the bank through the same General Ledger manipulation. Mr Akingbola had written a letter instructing that the said sum should be credited to the accounts of Tropics Properties Ltd., Bankinson Nig. Ltd and Tropics Finance ltd around May and June, 2009.Through the same manipulation the sum of 3.35 billion naira was also moved via an instruction given by Tropics Finance ltd. to Bankinson Nigeria Ltd., a company where his wife Mrs Antonia Akingbola has interest.
Also on the 15 May, 2009, the sum of 350 million naira was paid into the account of Intercontinental Homes, 500 million naira was paid to the account of Intercontinental Securities and another 250 million naira was paid into the account of Intercontinental Capital Market, all subsidiaries of the bank. The said payment was effected based on a letter dated 18 May 2009, received from Bayo Dada of Tropics Finance. The witness said this particular transaction was manipulated as the date of transfer on the statement varied from the day the instruction was received.
The sum of 1.550 billion naira was also moved fraudulently on the 22 May, 2009 in the same manner. An instruction from Akigbola was passed to the bank for the said money to be moved into the accounts of Tropics Finance Limited and Associated Discount House. The sum of 1.5 billion was moved to Tropics account to be fixed for one month while 50 million naira was paid to Associated Discount House to pay off debt owned by Tropics Finance Ltd.
Before the prosecution called its witness, Obla made available the proof of evidence to the defence.
The case has been adjourned to November 16, 2011 for continuation of trial.
Akingbola and his associate Bayo Dada are standing trial on a 22 count charge bordering on stealing over N42.4 billion from the Intercontinental Bank Plc
Femi Babafemi
Head, Media & Publicity
EFCC
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How Rogue Banker,Erastus Akingbola Transferred N25 Billion To Offshore Accounts- EFCC Witness
November 15, 2011 - 20:05 — siteadmin
caption:Rogue banker, Erastus Akingbola
By Femi Babafemi
The trial of former Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Mr Erastus Akingbola and his associate, Mr. Bayo Dada resumed on Tuesday November 15, 2011 with prosecution witness Jimoh Abdulraheem, a former chief inspector with the bank, detailing how he transferred funds to the offshore account of the 1st accused. Led in evidence by defence counsel, Godwin Obla, Abdulraheem told the court that he was once invited by the EFCC to give statement about the movement of funds from Intercontinental Bank to various companies account on the instruction of Akingbola while he held sway as managing director of Intercontinental Bank. He went on to identify a copy of the statement he wrote on 28 January, 2011. Obla consequently urged the court to Admit the document as exhibit but defence counsel, Felix Fagbohungbe, SAN objected, arguing that he needed time to study the document. The objection was over ruled by the court and the document was admitted as exhibit.
Another document authorising the transfer of 1.3 million pounds was also tendered by Obla. After certifying that he recognises the document, the witness informed the court how he was ordered via an instruction memo to transfer the sum of 1.3 million pounds to the account of a British Law Firm, Fulgers Solicitors. “ I was authorised by Dr Akingbola to inform the Head of Funds Department, prior to the instructions, there were discussions that the said amount be transferred to the account of Tropic Finance limited. The instruction came via a memo and the order was swiftly carried out. Mr Akin Fabunmi who is the Head of Funds Department carried out the instruction,”he stated.
A copy of an unsigned memo conveying Akingbola’s instruction to effect the transfer was given to the witness to confirm if that was the memo containing the instruction. The witness confirmed the document which was subsequently admitted as exhibit.
As to the where about of the originals, Jimoh said all original documents relating to the trial were lost in the cause of investigation. He continued that the instructions were carried out and the funds were transferred to the account of a British Law Firm, called Fulgers Solicitors.Obla asked the witness if there was any evidence to back up what he said. The witness said an electronically generated swift message is attached to the unsigned memo which represents the confirmation of payment. He was asked if he would recognise the said message. He answered in the affirmative and the court handed him a copy of both the message which he confirmed. He said such messages are usually printed out of the computer if foreign account transfers are carried out.
Counsel to Akingbola said the documents tendered are not original and urged the court not to admit them as exhibits.Obla responded saying the originals have been misplaced as stated by the witness in the process of investigation. He referred the court to section 97(1) C of the Evidence Act which said copies of documents can be admitted..
The objection was overruled by the court and the documents were admitted as exhibit
Another document tendered by Obla was a letter written to the bank by one Corporate Securities Nigeria Limited requesting that the bank should make a payment of 10 billion naira for some shares purchased for the bank. The letter listed how the payment was to be made to some companies. These companies are: Tropics Securities, Bankinson Nig. Ltd, and Tropics Properties. The letter was signed by Bayo Dada, who is a co- accused. The witness said that instruction was also carried out as the funds were taken from pre- payment account of the bank and credited to those companies. He said while investigations commenced, the bank management asked him to conduct investigations as to the movement of cheques issued to those companies and it was discovered that the three cheques have been deposited in those companies’ accounts at Access Bank. Further investigations revealed that the companies were linked to Akingbola and his wife, Antonia. Jimoh said the instruction to effect payment was given by Akigbola through verbal instruction. A certain Mr Fabunmi then raised a memo to effect it.
Another 8.6 billion naira was also taken from the bank through the same General Ledger manipulation. Mr Akingbola had written a letter instructing that the said sum should be credited to the accounts of Tropics Properties Ltd., Bankinson Nig. Ltd and Tropics Finance ltd around May and June, 2009.Through the same manipulation the sum of 3.35 billion naira was also moved via an instruction given by Tropics Finance ltd. to Bankinson Nigeria Ltd., a company where his wife Mrs Antonia Akingbola has interest.
Also on the 15 May, 2009, the sum of 350 million naira was paid into the account of Intercontinental Homes, 500 million naira was paid to the account of Intercontinental Securities and another 250 million naira was paid into the account of Intercontinental Capital Market, all subsidiaries of the bank. The said payment was effected based on a letter dated 18 May 2009, received from Bayo Dada of Tropics Finance. The witness said this particular transaction was manipulated as the date of transfer on the statement varied from the day the instruction was received.
The sum of 1.550 billion naira was also moved fraudulently on the 22 May, 2009 in the same manner. An instruction from Akigbola was passed to the bank for the said money to be moved into the accounts of Tropics Finance Limited and Associated Discount House. The sum of 1.5 billion was moved to Tropics account to be fixed for one month while 50 million naira was paid to Associated Discount House to pay off debt owned by Tropics Finance Ltd.
Before the prosecution called its witness, Obla made available the proof of evidence to the defence.
The case has been adjourned to November 16, 2011 for continuation of trial.
Akingbola and his associate Bayo Dada are standing trial on a 22 count charge bordering on stealing over N42.4 billion from the Intercontinental Bank Plc
Femi Babafemi
Head, Media & Publicity
EFCC
Disturbing article about Chinese bosses operating in Nigeria.
Source: http://mobile.saharareporters.com/report/chinese-expats-treat-nigerian-employees-punching-bags
Sahara Reporters is a citizen media website that encourages citizen journalists to publish evidence of ongoing corruption, abuses of human rights, and government malfeasance in Nigeria. It is one of the principal sources of independent investigative journalism and breaking news on Nigeria’s government.
Chinese Expats Treat Nigerian Employees As Punching Bags
October 18, 2011 - 17:22 — site admin
Admin Fields
SR Exclusive: This is a Sahara Reporters Exclusive report
Highlight on Homepage: Highlight on Homepage
Top Item:
caption:
A Nigerian policeman holds an umbrella over a Chinese expat
Maaji Meriga
By SaharaReporters, New York
The Chinese kick Nigerian workers on the testicles when they are not submissive.
If you are a Nigerian working for the Chinese, you are at risk of losing your private parts, says Maaji Meriga, after he practically lost the use of his manhood while working to construct railway tracks in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, for the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), a major overseas interest of the Chinese government.
The 62-year-old casual worker and bread winner of a family of 6 children was left potentially impotent when the company’s transport manager, Marcho Chin, popularly called ‘old soldier’, allegedly kicked him on his testicles and punched him on the ear to prove who is boss.
It all began a month into his job as a water tanker driver on January 29, 2011 at about 11:00am when Old Soldier asked Mr. Meriga to fill his tank and water the road leading to the CCECC yard, around Karamajiji Village near the Abuja airport. Mr. Meriga said while en route and spraying the ground, another Chinese in charge of drainages stopped him close to the yard and asked he fill two drums with water. He obliged, turned off the main spray machine, opened the side tap and began filling the drums when Old Soldier came and queried him.
“He said I am wasting resources, that I want to spoil the tanker. I told him that I can’t spoil it. He just went and opened the spray machine,” said Mr. Meriga. “I told him that it is his brother that asked me to fill the drums. I bent down to switch off the spray machine when he then kicked me from behind on my scrotum and testes. I immediately fell down. As I got up and asked him ‘master why?’ he then blew me on the ear before entering his jeep and drove to the yard.
Mr. Meriga immediately reported the case to the company’s personnel manager, Mr. Austin, but was ordered out of the premises, without any medical attention given to him.
“I reported at Karamajiji Police Station. I naked myself before the Police and showed them what happened to me. They saw my thing was swelling. I told them I am dying, I need,” Mr. Meriga said. “One officer followed me to the company but Mr. Austin told the Policeman he will not allow the white man go to station unless order comes from above.”
But several days later the order never came. By this time, Mr. Meriga’s left testicle had become swollen to the extent he was admitted for five days at the Garaku General Hospital in Nasarawa State. He was in need of urgent surgery as “examination of the testis showed grossly enlarged left hemi scrotum with marked tenderness of contiguous testis”. One medical record stated that an impression of inflammation was “made secondary to direct blow resulting from a beating”.
Regardless, the Chinese company had made it clear the Nigeria Police couldn’t do them anything; after all Mr. Meriga wouldn’t be the first to receive a ‘Chinese kick to the balls’ and nothing would come out of it.
A year earlier, on February 5, 2010, another of the company’s water tanker drivers, Michael Francis, a casual staff for over a year, had on resumption of duty that morning told Old Soldier the pump of the tanker to be used to wet the ground was faulty. He was asked to manage it.
But later that day, the assistant transport manager, Mr. Lie, better known as ‘Bedebede’, wanted to reduce his daily wage as the ground he had been allotted was not properly wet. His refusal allegedly earned him a kick to the groin. He fainted on the spot and was subsequently hospitalised for over a week at Access Hospital located along Police Barracks Road, Gwagwa, Abuja.
“He held my shirt, slapped and kicked me in the penis when I refused to give my wages card for him to cut some hours from the work I had done that day,” said the 29-year-old. “The pay is N600 a day and we can work from 7am to 5pm. I refused since it wasn’t my fault, because they can cut your money by half, then how much do I have left?”
The company had tried denying having any Chinese staff bearing that name but conceded when Mr. Francis produced a picture of himself and Bedebede taken together on December 16, 2009 at the CCECC yard. But again, the company’s Nigerian personnel manager, Mr. Austin, was involved in sweeping the case under the carpet. Mr. Francis resigned from the company on February 16, 2010 as he couldn’t resume work immediately after he was discharged, as the company had mandated. He was not compensated.
In pains, distraught, and in urgent need of money for his operation, Mr. Meriga in February 2011 took his plight to the Brekete Family Show, a human rights radio magazine talk show, run by Ahmad Isah, who brought him and Mr. Francis on live radio to tell their stories.
“Nigerians are being brutalised by foreigners in our own country. In their country, this can never happen. We reported to the Human Rights Commission, Police, Ministry of Justice, everywhere. What has anyone done to the foreigners or the company? Nothing!” Mr. Isah lamented. “If you see how swollen his testicles were. He couldn’t do anything, he couldn’t wear pant, even to stand was a problem. I had to spend over N350,000 of my own personal money to pay for Meriga’s surgery and hospital bills at the National Hospital, just to save his life. The company did nothing for him. It is pathetic!”
Mr. Meriga petitioned the Commissioner of Police of the FCT Police Command on February 22, 2011, in a case of criminal force and assault. Eight months later, the Police spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, says investigations are still on.
“The DPO Lugbe handling the case told me the matter has not being charged to court because the complainant went for medical treatment and has not returned for the police to conclude their investigation and charge the person to court,” Mr. Moshood said.
But contrary to Mr. Moshood’s claims, the Police in an unprecedented record time of six days had concluded the case in favour of the Chinese eight months ago, through Chief Superintendent of Police Olufemi Abaniwonda, the Divisional Police Officer of Lugbe Division.
CSP Abaniwonda declared in his report dated February 28 that as a “matter of fact, there is no case to be arraigned in court because no witness to facilitate the prosecution”. But Mr. Meriga had provided several witnesses whom the DPO dismissed as “hostile witnesses” collaborating “to see how they can make false claim on the Chineseman”. He then wrote that Mr. Meriga be warned to “desist in parading himself within the company”.
CSP Abaniwonda further compromised his authority. He had received a letter from the Chinese company on February 28 requesting for his report on the case. Despite being a criminal case with police reports only to be given to courts of law, the DPO in a few hours quickly dispatched a signed copy of the 3-page Police report directly to CCECC’s Managing Director at Plot 215 Cadastral Zone, KM 10, Umaru Yar’Adua Way, Airport Road, Abuja. To please the Chinese, he wrote Mr. Meriga was never kicked in the groin.
The DPO by his actions effectively denied Mr. Meriga his right to seek justice for the assault he acknowledged occurred when he wrote that Old Soldier “slapped the complainant on the face as the complainant alleged”. The content of the Police report further suggests Old Soldier was never interviewed on the incident, as he was never identified by his real name, only described as a suspect named “Mr. Old Soldier”.
A lawyer, Nsikan Robinson, had also voluntarily taken up the case then. His best effort was to write CCECC on February 22, 2011 giving the company seven days to repatriate Old Soldier and Bedebede, pay N10 million compensation to each of his clients, and for the company to bear their medical expenses. Eight months on he says lack of funds and not fear has hindered him from instituting legal action against the company.
Very little has indeed being done in the eight months since Messrs. Meriga and Francis also petitioned the Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on February 16, 2011 and the Director General, Legal Aid Council of Nigeria on June 24, 2011.
Only once since July did Mr. Francis say a lady called him from the Legal Aid Council, a government agency which gives free legal aid, promising to call again to give him an appointment. The most the NHRC, which has constitutional powers to prosecute cases of Human Rights abuse, have done is exchange of letters with the Chinese company.
“We demanded a full response from the alleged company. The company’s lawyer wrote back referring us to the police report which rather blamed Meriga than the company,” said Lambert Oparah, the Human Rights Commission spokesperson, who said the commission has being pushing to settle the case by dialogue with all parties.
Phone calls, text and email messages to the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria, including Mr. Wang, the embassy’s representative in Lagos State, went unanswered. But the Chinese company through their solicitors, Paul Attayi and Co, categorically dismissed Messrs. Meriga and Francis stories as “gold digging exercises” and told the Human Rights Commission that they should go to court to seek redress.
“Our clients are prepared and determined to frustrate this exercise. Our client is prepared to defend itself against such frivolous and vexation claims with fanatical determination,” said Mr. Attayi while stating that the company “recognises and protects” the rights of all employees as contained in their employment letters.
But employees of the company who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal say their working conditions are greatly abused and the worst in the construction industry. Most workers say they don’t have employment letters and have remained casual labourers for months, some years, thus being denied such benefits as health insurance and pensions.
“If you say you can use a machine or you can drive, they test you. If you pass they give you a form you fill there and return to them before you start work. They don’t give you a copy,” said one labourer. “In 40 people, maybe five are staff, the rest are casual. They keep promising they will staff us. A lot of us are getting injured but because we are not staff, company will not take care of you. Our Nigerians in company management are not helping us. What can we do? To find work is difficult. We just have to accept.”
When Mr. Austin, the company’s personnel manager was contacted on Messrs. Meriga and Francis case, he feigned ignorance of them stating: “I don’t know very well. Actually we have many cases on ground but I can’t recall now. Are they our workers?” On the illegality of the company engaging people on casual labour for extended periods, he quickly said, “that’s where my statement stops”.
A successful surgery was performed on Mr. Meriga’s testicle on July 7. He is still on medication but says he doesn’t take for granted anytime he has an erection. Some months back, his manhood was dysfunctional. His case is one of justice delayed is justice denied as he is losing faith in Nigeria defending the rights of its citizens at home and abroad.
“I don’t think Nigerians can go to China and behave like that and go free. I want Nigeria to follow the law and give me justice,” Mr. Meriga says.
Sahara Reporters is a citizen media website that encourages citizen journalists to publish evidence of ongoing corruption, abuses of human rights, and government malfeasance in Nigeria. It is one of the principal sources of independent investigative journalism and breaking news on Nigeria’s government.
Chinese Expats Treat Nigerian Employees As Punching Bags
October 18, 2011 - 17:22 — site admin
Admin Fields
SR Exclusive: This is a Sahara Reporters Exclusive report
Highlight on Homepage: Highlight on Homepage
Top Item:
caption:
A Nigerian policeman holds an umbrella over a Chinese expat
Maaji Meriga
By SaharaReporters, New York
The Chinese kick Nigerian workers on the testicles when they are not submissive.
If you are a Nigerian working for the Chinese, you are at risk of losing your private parts, says Maaji Meriga, after he practically lost the use of his manhood while working to construct railway tracks in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, for the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), a major overseas interest of the Chinese government.
The 62-year-old casual worker and bread winner of a family of 6 children was left potentially impotent when the company’s transport manager, Marcho Chin, popularly called ‘old soldier’, allegedly kicked him on his testicles and punched him on the ear to prove who is boss.
It all began a month into his job as a water tanker driver on January 29, 2011 at about 11:00am when Old Soldier asked Mr. Meriga to fill his tank and water the road leading to the CCECC yard, around Karamajiji Village near the Abuja airport. Mr. Meriga said while en route and spraying the ground, another Chinese in charge of drainages stopped him close to the yard and asked he fill two drums with water. He obliged, turned off the main spray machine, opened the side tap and began filling the drums when Old Soldier came and queried him.
“He said I am wasting resources, that I want to spoil the tanker. I told him that I can’t spoil it. He just went and opened the spray machine,” said Mr. Meriga. “I told him that it is his brother that asked me to fill the drums. I bent down to switch off the spray machine when he then kicked me from behind on my scrotum and testes. I immediately fell down. As I got up and asked him ‘master why?’ he then blew me on the ear before entering his jeep and drove to the yard.
Mr. Meriga immediately reported the case to the company’s personnel manager, Mr. Austin, but was ordered out of the premises, without any medical attention given to him.
“I reported at Karamajiji Police Station. I naked myself before the Police and showed them what happened to me. They saw my thing was swelling. I told them I am dying, I need,” Mr. Meriga said. “One officer followed me to the company but Mr. Austin told the Policeman he will not allow the white man go to station unless order comes from above.”
But several days later the order never came. By this time, Mr. Meriga’s left testicle had become swollen to the extent he was admitted for five days at the Garaku General Hospital in Nasarawa State. He was in need of urgent surgery as “examination of the testis showed grossly enlarged left hemi scrotum with marked tenderness of contiguous testis”. One medical record stated that an impression of inflammation was “made secondary to direct blow resulting from a beating”.
Regardless, the Chinese company had made it clear the Nigeria Police couldn’t do them anything; after all Mr. Meriga wouldn’t be the first to receive a ‘Chinese kick to the balls’ and nothing would come out of it.
A year earlier, on February 5, 2010, another of the company’s water tanker drivers, Michael Francis, a casual staff for over a year, had on resumption of duty that morning told Old Soldier the pump of the tanker to be used to wet the ground was faulty. He was asked to manage it.
But later that day, the assistant transport manager, Mr. Lie, better known as ‘Bedebede’, wanted to reduce his daily wage as the ground he had been allotted was not properly wet. His refusal allegedly earned him a kick to the groin. He fainted on the spot and was subsequently hospitalised for over a week at Access Hospital located along Police Barracks Road, Gwagwa, Abuja.
“He held my shirt, slapped and kicked me in the penis when I refused to give my wages card for him to cut some hours from the work I had done that day,” said the 29-year-old. “The pay is N600 a day and we can work from 7am to 5pm. I refused since it wasn’t my fault, because they can cut your money by half, then how much do I have left?”
The company had tried denying having any Chinese staff bearing that name but conceded when Mr. Francis produced a picture of himself and Bedebede taken together on December 16, 2009 at the CCECC yard. But again, the company’s Nigerian personnel manager, Mr. Austin, was involved in sweeping the case under the carpet. Mr. Francis resigned from the company on February 16, 2010 as he couldn’t resume work immediately after he was discharged, as the company had mandated. He was not compensated.
In pains, distraught, and in urgent need of money for his operation, Mr. Meriga in February 2011 took his plight to the Brekete Family Show, a human rights radio magazine talk show, run by Ahmad Isah, who brought him and Mr. Francis on live radio to tell their stories.
“Nigerians are being brutalised by foreigners in our own country. In their country, this can never happen. We reported to the Human Rights Commission, Police, Ministry of Justice, everywhere. What has anyone done to the foreigners or the company? Nothing!” Mr. Isah lamented. “If you see how swollen his testicles were. He couldn’t do anything, he couldn’t wear pant, even to stand was a problem. I had to spend over N350,000 of my own personal money to pay for Meriga’s surgery and hospital bills at the National Hospital, just to save his life. The company did nothing for him. It is pathetic!”
Mr. Meriga petitioned the Commissioner of Police of the FCT Police Command on February 22, 2011, in a case of criminal force and assault. Eight months later, the Police spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, says investigations are still on.
“The DPO Lugbe handling the case told me the matter has not being charged to court because the complainant went for medical treatment and has not returned for the police to conclude their investigation and charge the person to court,” Mr. Moshood said.
But contrary to Mr. Moshood’s claims, the Police in an unprecedented record time of six days had concluded the case in favour of the Chinese eight months ago, through Chief Superintendent of Police Olufemi Abaniwonda, the Divisional Police Officer of Lugbe Division.
CSP Abaniwonda declared in his report dated February 28 that as a “matter of fact, there is no case to be arraigned in court because no witness to facilitate the prosecution”. But Mr. Meriga had provided several witnesses whom the DPO dismissed as “hostile witnesses” collaborating “to see how they can make false claim on the Chineseman”. He then wrote that Mr. Meriga be warned to “desist in parading himself within the company”.
CSP Abaniwonda further compromised his authority. He had received a letter from the Chinese company on February 28 requesting for his report on the case. Despite being a criminal case with police reports only to be given to courts of law, the DPO in a few hours quickly dispatched a signed copy of the 3-page Police report directly to CCECC’s Managing Director at Plot 215 Cadastral Zone, KM 10, Umaru Yar’Adua Way, Airport Road, Abuja. To please the Chinese, he wrote Mr. Meriga was never kicked in the groin.
The DPO by his actions effectively denied Mr. Meriga his right to seek justice for the assault he acknowledged occurred when he wrote that Old Soldier “slapped the complainant on the face as the complainant alleged”. The content of the Police report further suggests Old Soldier was never interviewed on the incident, as he was never identified by his real name, only described as a suspect named “Mr. Old Soldier”.
A lawyer, Nsikan Robinson, had also voluntarily taken up the case then. His best effort was to write CCECC on February 22, 2011 giving the company seven days to repatriate Old Soldier and Bedebede, pay N10 million compensation to each of his clients, and for the company to bear their medical expenses. Eight months on he says lack of funds and not fear has hindered him from instituting legal action against the company.
Very little has indeed being done in the eight months since Messrs. Meriga and Francis also petitioned the Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on February 16, 2011 and the Director General, Legal Aid Council of Nigeria on June 24, 2011.
Only once since July did Mr. Francis say a lady called him from the Legal Aid Council, a government agency which gives free legal aid, promising to call again to give him an appointment. The most the NHRC, which has constitutional powers to prosecute cases of Human Rights abuse, have done is exchange of letters with the Chinese company.
“We demanded a full response from the alleged company. The company’s lawyer wrote back referring us to the police report which rather blamed Meriga than the company,” said Lambert Oparah, the Human Rights Commission spokesperson, who said the commission has being pushing to settle the case by dialogue with all parties.
Phone calls, text and email messages to the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria, including Mr. Wang, the embassy’s representative in Lagos State, went unanswered. But the Chinese company through their solicitors, Paul Attayi and Co, categorically dismissed Messrs. Meriga and Francis stories as “gold digging exercises” and told the Human Rights Commission that they should go to court to seek redress.
“Our clients are prepared and determined to frustrate this exercise. Our client is prepared to defend itself against such frivolous and vexation claims with fanatical determination,” said Mr. Attayi while stating that the company “recognises and protects” the rights of all employees as contained in their employment letters.
But employees of the company who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal say their working conditions are greatly abused and the worst in the construction industry. Most workers say they don’t have employment letters and have remained casual labourers for months, some years, thus being denied such benefits as health insurance and pensions.
“If you say you can use a machine or you can drive, they test you. If you pass they give you a form you fill there and return to them before you start work. They don’t give you a copy,” said one labourer. “In 40 people, maybe five are staff, the rest are casual. They keep promising they will staff us. A lot of us are getting injured but because we are not staff, company will not take care of you. Our Nigerians in company management are not helping us. What can we do? To find work is difficult. We just have to accept.”
When Mr. Austin, the company’s personnel manager was contacted on Messrs. Meriga and Francis case, he feigned ignorance of them stating: “I don’t know very well. Actually we have many cases on ground but I can’t recall now. Are they our workers?” On the illegality of the company engaging people on casual labour for extended periods, he quickly said, “that’s where my statement stops”.
A successful surgery was performed on Mr. Meriga’s testicle on July 7. He is still on medication but says he doesn’t take for granted anytime he has an erection. Some months back, his manhood was dysfunctional. His case is one of justice delayed is justice denied as he is losing faith in Nigeria defending the rights of its citizens at home and abroad.
“I don’t think Nigerians can go to China and behave like that and go free. I want Nigeria to follow the law and give me justice,” Mr. Meriga says.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: Want to help Africa? Do business here | Video on TED.com
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: Want to help Africa? Do business here | Video on TED.com
We know the negative images of Africa -- famine and disease, conflict and corruption. But, says Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, there's another, less-told story happening in many African nations: one of reform, economic growth and business opportunity.
Click on any phrase to play the video from that point.
Thank you very much, Chris. Everybody who came up here said they were scared. I don't know if I'm scared, but this is my first time of addressing an audience like this. And I don't have any smart technology for you to look at. There are no slides, so you'll just have to be content with me. (Laughter)
What I want to do this morning is share with you a couple of stories and talk about a different Africa.Already this morning there were some allusions to the Africa that you hear about all the time: the Africa of HIV/AIDS, the Africa of malaria, the Africa of poverty, the Africa of conflict, and the Africa of disasters.
While it is true that those things are going on, there's an Africa that you don't hear about very much. And sometimes I'm puzzled, and I ask myself why.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
As the first female Finance Minister in Nigeria, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala attacked corruption to make the country more desirable for foreign investment and job creation. Now as a director of the World… Full bio and more links
Eleni Gabre-Madhin on Ethiopian economics | Video on TED.com
Eleni Gabre-Madhin on Ethiopian economics | Video on TED.com
Economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin outlines her ambitious vision to found the first commodities market in Ethiopia. Her plan would create wealth, minimize risk for farmers and turn the world's largest recipient of food aid into a regional food basket.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
After the revolution, Libya's challenges - World - CBC News
ANALYSIS | After the revolution, Libya's challenges - World - CBC News:
Derek Stoffel is the Middle East correspondent for CBC Radio News, a position he took up in the summer of 2011. Based for a long time in Toronto where he covered national news for CBC Radio, Stoffel has also done long stints in Afghanistan and Europe, both as a reporter and producer.
'via Blog this'
Derek Stoffel
Middle East correspondentDerek Stoffel is the Middle East correspondent for CBC Radio News, a position he took up in the summer of 2011. Based for a long time in Toronto where he covered national news for CBC Radio, Stoffel has also done long stints in Afghanistan and Europe, both as a reporter and producer.
'via Blog this'
Saturday, October 22, 2011
East Africa drought crisis still ‘huge’ — SOS Children
I just copied this to help get the word out.
East Africa drought crisis still ‘huge’ — SOS Children:
The size of the humanitarian emergency in the Horn of Africa remains massive, says a British politician.Three months after famine was officially declared in Somalia, hundreds of people, mainly children, are still dying every day, said Britain’s International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell.
The drought and famine have forced thousands of people into refugee camps and left 12 million people in need of aid and 750,000 at risk of death in Somalia, according to the latest figures from the Famine Early Warning System FEWS.
Earlier this week it was revealed that British aid is feeding more than 2.4m people across the region and an appeal by the UK’s Disasters and Emergency Committee has raised £72m, but that is still not enough.
With the rainy season round the corner, people caught up in the crisis are now facing the risk of disease spreading across crowded refugee camps.
More than 400,000 children are still at risk of death, just in Somalia alone, Mr Mitchell notes. British aid pouring into the region has been concentrated on keeping people healthy. About 1.3m people have been given jabs against measles, for instance, and 400,000 doses of anti-malarial drugs are heading for Somalia.
Although the rains look likely to bring with them yet more misery and death, they can also play a part in the region’s recovery from the disaster. Funds raised by British people have helped buy seeds for more than 200,000 people, which they will be able to plant and grow when the weather improves. The biggest problem, however is still actually getting to people in need who are living inside the parts of Somalia worst affected by fighting. Famine was officially declared in the lawless country as far back as July. And because they can’t get aid if they stay put, the number of Somali refugees crossing into south-eastern Ethiopia is on the rise.
Announcing its appeal to help people hit by the crisis DEC chief executive Brendan Gormley said earlier this week: "The incredibly generous support of the UK public for the DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal has made the difference between life and death for many people in the region. But, he warned that "the situation remains grave however particularly in those areas of Somalia where access for most aid agencies remains severely restricted.” The appeal brought in the third highest amount in charity's 45-year history - only the Asian tsunami (£392m) and the Haiti earthquake (£107m) raised more.
'via Blog this'
East Africa drought crisis still ‘huge’ — SOS Children:
The size of the humanitarian emergency in the Horn of Africa remains massive, says a British politician.Three months after famine was officially declared in Somalia, hundreds of people, mainly children, are still dying every day, said Britain’s International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell.
The drought and famine have forced thousands of people into refugee camps and left 12 million people in need of aid and 750,000 at risk of death in Somalia, according to the latest figures from the Famine Early Warning System FEWS.
Earlier this week it was revealed that British aid is feeding more than 2.4m people across the region and an appeal by the UK’s Disasters and Emergency Committee has raised £72m, but that is still not enough.
With the rainy season round the corner, people caught up in the crisis are now facing the risk of disease spreading across crowded refugee camps.
More than 400,000 children are still at risk of death, just in Somalia alone, Mr Mitchell notes. British aid pouring into the region has been concentrated on keeping people healthy. About 1.3m people have been given jabs against measles, for instance, and 400,000 doses of anti-malarial drugs are heading for Somalia.
Although the rains look likely to bring with them yet more misery and death, they can also play a part in the region’s recovery from the disaster. Funds raised by British people have helped buy seeds for more than 200,000 people, which they will be able to plant and grow when the weather improves. The biggest problem, however is still actually getting to people in need who are living inside the parts of Somalia worst affected by fighting. Famine was officially declared in the lawless country as far back as July. And because they can’t get aid if they stay put, the number of Somali refugees crossing into south-eastern Ethiopia is on the rise.
Announcing its appeal to help people hit by the crisis DEC chief executive Brendan Gormley said earlier this week: "The incredibly generous support of the UK public for the DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal has made the difference between life and death for many people in the region. But, he warned that "the situation remains grave however particularly in those areas of Somalia where access for most aid agencies remains severely restricted.” The appeal brought in the third highest amount in charity's 45-year history - only the Asian tsunami (£392m) and the Haiti earthquake (£107m) raised more.
'via Blog this'
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Something Evil Happened Here
Libya: Gaddafi's Reign of Terror - The Daily Beast:
There are places in the world, like Srebrenica in Bosnia, like Hama in Syria, where the ghosts of death linger long after the event. You smell them and you see them even before you arrive: these are haunted places. In a small field, part of the compound, belonging to the 32nd Brigade, a guard leads me to a corrugated-iron warehouse, terra-cotta colored, about 30 feet by 50 feet. I’m not so far away when I begin to feel a familiar sensation: something evil happened here.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Dancing with monsters in the Congo - World - CBC News
Dancing with monsters in the Congo - World - CBC News:
"There, a vast war has raged since the mid 1990s. An estimated five million people have died. And thousands of women have been brutally raped as the spoils of war and pillage."
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