WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2013. 7:30:24 a.m. [GMT]
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Does an expectant mother look this way? You be the judge! – MailOnline
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The “outrage” over Serena Williams’ comments on an American rape case – Tola Adenle
In an interview for an upcoming issue of The Rolling Stone, the following is the full comments attributed to Ms. Williams on a rape case that is in the news in America:
Do you think it was fair, what they got?” she said when she and the interview watched news on TV and the Ohio rape trial appeared onscreen. The case involved two high school football players who raped a drunk 16-year-old while other students watched and texted details of the crime.
Shaking her head, Serena continued voicing her opinion, “They did something stupid, but I don’t know. I’m not blaming the girl, but if you’re a 16-year-old and you’re drunk like that, your parents should teach you: Don’t take drinks from other people.”
“She’s 16, why was she that drunk where she doesn’t remember? It could have been much worse. She’s lucky. Obviously, I don’t know, maybe she wasn’t a virgin, but she shouldn’t have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that’s different.”
The AP story I read was short on the total picture; just quoted a bit that does not give the whole picture. Here are two comments I made to the comments of one blogger who gave more of what Serena said, and to the whole story to ensure my opinion gets noticed by more.
Rape IS a criminal act that gets little attention in developing countries, especially a country like Nigeria where the victims often get blamed as Serena seems to be doing in a country, especially America, where men are now being forced by women’s groups and and various NGOs’ to look hard at the crime. With comments on rape by highly-placed elected and candidates for Repubilcan offices being publicized these days – “some girls, they rape so easy” & others have been on this blog lately – Serena’s from-the-heart and not from the head and definitely politically-incorrect comments may not be that different from some male species of the developed world and most males of the developing world.
Here are the two comments I posted to the story:
Serena Williams comments on rape case in interview
By The Associated Press
Thanks, “Rod” for giving us the part the AP reporter would rather withhold. Now to the point: rape is criminal and deserves the highest punishment on the book no matter how it happened. As for Serena’s point, I always wonder how and why women – young and old alike – always ignore the obvious advantage of watching out in every situation that could prove dangerous. I’m no spring chicken who would be desired by teenage hooligans and criminals but I never park my car away from where other eyes would see what’s happening, I never park in shopping centers at night in darkness IF I must go out … and as I remember, when young, I would never get myself drunk. There are safeguards that can be taken, especially by girls barely in their teens but many parents seem to have abandoned their responsibilities of showing their kids the proper way. To make it worse, society gets in the way of parenting – if you know what I’m trying to say.
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I also asked myself when that “angelic” Miss Black America contestant claimed Mike Tyson raped her several years ago even before Tyson was incredibly sent to jail: you were at a supposedly wholesome competition for young females, you left the safe confines of the hotel, went with “ugly” Mike at 2 a.m. or during hours that would be considered unsafe for a teenager; you got to his hotel, went into the bedroom with him … what in the world for, to see his boxing trophies in a hotel room in a city that was not his residence?
There are animals in the clothing of men out there but women, excluding those little girls that pedophiles prey on who do not know anything, MUST learn to be very cautious and must never be off their guards. The little girls must be always taught never to wait to answer questions from strangers if they are left alone; run, scream or do anything to attract attention.
The animal in this rape case must be dealt with by the law which tends to allow these scums to be off the hook.
This is not in support of Serena but in support of comments that are genuine and not canned to conform as most in public eye have mastered.
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Finally, as for Serena, she must learn to rattle off the way just about ALL in her trade of women’s tennis, other sports, Hollywood, politics, etcetera without offending the majority. Or simply pass on subjects that she’s not prepared to let her feelings be known. It is folly, the old adage says, to be wise in the land of the folly.
I listen to many of these society people these days and wonder how they are able to keep sly smiles off their faces when they rattle off these make-belief positions!
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2013. 9:30:004a.m. [GMT]
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Jeopardy! host poised for politics – Judy Kurtz
This isn’t good news out of Washington, D.C. this week for lovers of Jeopardy! the long-running Merv Griffin game show about long-time host, Alex Trebek – TOLA.
The Hill News
Alex Trebek: Running for office ‘a possibility’
- 06/18/13 02:20 PM ET
Could one city soon be calling Alex Trebek its mayor? [WATCH VIDEO]
The longtime “Jeopardy!” host says the answer is: yes.
Trebek was one of several high-profile honorees — including filmmaker James Cameron, skydiver Felix Baumgartner, philanthropist Howard Buffett and oceanographer Sylvia Earle — at Thursday’s National Geographic Explorers Symposium and Gala at Washington’s National Building Museum.
When The Hill asked the trivia show pro, who was born in Canada, about a report that he was toying with the idea of running for mayor of Toronto, Trebek replied, “I have no idea. I don’t make plans too far in advance. But I’ve always been interested in politics, and it’s a possibility.”
He added, “But for the moment, I’m still the host of ‘Jeopardy!’ and I’m going to continue for a while.”
Whose photograph is above? Who is Alex Trebek!
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2013. 5:14:55 p.m. [GMT]
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2013 Confed Cup Wednesday, June 19: Brazil shows it still owns the Samba; sends Mexico home!
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Street protesterers win: Brazil officials reverse transport hike – Tola Adenle
In what is a clear victory for Brazil’s street protesters and, hopefully, a true new beginning towards building a fairer society, officials in the two cities plagued by huge demonstrations this past week have reversed the increase in public transportation that started the anti-government protests.
The Brazilian government must be scared thinking what such would do to the coming World Cup and Olympics if the current warm-up for its sports facilities for the 2013 Confed Cup could ignite the massive protests.
The protests started over a fare hike of pennies but soon spread through its cities in what could not have been unexpected from governments at various levels that are sinking over $20 billion on stadium development and improvement all over the country.
Brazil is a poster boy for countries where the social divide between the rich and poor are so wide and so apparent that the very poor in many cases and in glitzy cities like Rio live within stones’ throws of each other. Its governments have promised for decades efforts at tackling poverty but it seems nothing has been done or what is being done is just not enough.
In the build-up to awarding the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic venues, Brazil tried to spruce up its ugly face, moving heavily armed law officers to gang-infested neighborhoods which, as noted above, are often right behind the multimillion-dollar condos from which the rich can see the squalor of a city like Rio through their elegant windows.
A reported comment by the ever-flippant FIFA’s Sepp Blatter that the World Cup should not be linked to the protests because the award of the tournament was not forced on Brazil is unbelievable. This man keeps reminding the world that he has definitely outstayed his time at the head of FIFA:
President Dilma Roussef, Brazil’s first female president was on CNN and other media praising the protesters as waking the government up but what her government plans to do to redress the massive social imbalance remains unknown even as the clock ticks to 2014.
The restlessness in Brazil was apparently brought to boil by the 2013 Confed Cup should be a warning to countries like Nigeria where a few at the top: politicians, top civil servants and a few others whose “business” IS the business of actively aiding the continued looting of the wealth of the people through scams like the so-called “oil subsidy”, etcetera.
The world’s down-trodden seem to be saying “enough” to governments in the Middle East, Greece, Turkey where poor governance and corruption have added to the problems of the middle class and the burden of the poor. In countries like Nigeria, the middle class is being wiped out with societies now made up of the very rich in whose homes domestics pick up hard currencies with house dirt.
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The corruption that President Jonathan promised to fight “without fear or favor” has gotten worse while the president reportedly pleads to citizens that he “eats only two meals a day”! Billions are being looted/given out (latest: N22 billion secretly gifted to 84 unnamed individuals) daily.
The police and the military will not be able to contain the fire of the people’s angst when it comes next in Nigeria, and the mansions of the rich would become gilded cages that would be too small and too unsafe to protect them.
THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013. 4:40 a.m. [GMT]
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New generation of elite universities rises around the globe – reuters.com
by Stephanie Simon
THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013. 10:33 a.m. [GMT]
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The “condolence visit”: an in-your-face display by [Nigeria's] political class against the masses - Tola Adenle
I was inspired to start this essay when I read the following after the death of Pa Abraham Adesanya, and his Ijebu-Igbo residence had become the place to see and be seen as has become the practice, pardon me – the in-thing these last few years. It’s from Hardball, that little piece of teaser which often contains heavy messages on the back page of the week-day edition of…
As relevant today as it was back in 2008. Used in 2012 but with Soyinka's essay in Sahara Reporters culled here, I thought I should re-use this so that those who may not have read it, but especially the non-Nigerian readers can understand the culture in these situations better. TOLA, June 20, 2013.
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The Village Mourners Association By Wole Soyinka – Soyinka on Sahara Reporters
Wole Soyinka
Columnist:
Nigerians who are old enough will surely recall the source of the above title. For others, I ought to narrate its origin. Fortunately, early this year, I delivered a lecture at the University of Ibadan, where I made a passing reference to the true owners of that copyright. Here is the relevant section:
“At the passing of a short-lived dictator, his successor decreed two weeks of mourning, two weeks during which the nation went into a coma. Even the television and radio stations closed down – nothing but martial and funereal music was played, while churches and mosques took over the abandoned air-waves to drown the nation in suras and canticles of lachrymose outpouring. A very sharp group quickly formed something that was called the National Mourners Association – clever lot! While the nation was quarantined and bogged down in the orgy of lamentation, they were touring the world, sponsored by government, to take the gospel of anguish to every corner of the world that boasted a Nigerian diplomatic mission.”
Yes, that was at the death of General Murtala Mohammed. But now, we turn to address the latest progenies of that association, operating in a different clime and context, but cacophonously enmeshed in variations on that ancient tune.
When that day comes that individuals encounter hostility over their sensibilities in dealing with loss in their own way, privately, away from public eye, with or without symbolic public gestures, then we are witnessing the end, not simply of plain civility, but of civilization, and the enthronement of Fascism. It is not the intolerance and excess of a moment’s excitation, but of a cultivated arrogance and will to imposition, one that attempts to dictate the private responses of others to shared events. Once again we are confronted with the Nigerian phenomenon of the egregious appropriation of what is not on offer and thus, is not subject to dispute. Where frustrated, these claimants reel out chapters from their Book of Imprecations.
Let it be stated here, for the avoidance of doubt, that I am a solid believer in the collective rites of Farewell. I believe in Ritual. Humanity is often assisted to reconcile with loss in a collective, and even spectacular mode. The choice to participate or not, however, belongs to each individual, including even those who arrogate to themselves the mission of imposing on others their own preferred mode of bidding farewell. These self-righteous clerics are dangerous beings, especially where they flaunt the credentials of secular learning and gather in caucuses of presumed Humanities. From the herd, the mindless Internet fiddlers for whom the landing of a planetary probe, or a medical breakthrough is simply distraction from fraudulent internet mailing, nothing less is expected. What menaces the collective health of society is when the deserving highs of intellectual application of the former, become indistinguishable from the loutish low of the latter.
I do not pander to the expectations of the sanctimonious. I can absent myself from any event, for reasons that are personal to me. I can absent myself as the result of a mundane domestic situation, as legitimately as from a visceral rejection of occupancy of the same space, at the same time, in the same cause, with certain other participants. I may absent myself for the very reason of my disdain for that breed which is certain to cavil at the very fact of my absence. Such specimens pollute the very space they claim to honour. Sputter and rage they may, but even the most illustrious of that ilk cannot control that choice, neither will they be permitted free passage to encroach upon, and abuse the private spaces of human responsiveness.
I shall speak to them directly: your psychological profile is commonplace. It is not the honour to Chinua that agitates you, no, it is your own self-regarding that seeks to be reflected in the homage to a departed colleague. It does not take a psycho-analyst to recognize this phenomenon of greedy acquisitiveness, even of immaterial products. Like emotional parasites, you feed off others, but you have never learnt to value what others give, or be thereby nourished. I recognize you, atavistic minds – was it not your type that once disseminated an unbelievably primitive accounting for Chinua Achebe’s motor accident? Here goes the story, for those who seek light relief from ponderous unctuousness:
What happened was that I found myself unable to return to Nigeria for a Colloquium in honour of Chinua’s sixtieth birthday. My dramatic mind immediately scrambled for some striking manner of compensation. So I telephoned a business friend who had some agricultural connections in Delta State and told him: find the chunkiest, spotless ram in Delta State – all white or all black, but a thoroughbred of striking physique. Find a leather pouch, tie it to its neck with the following message and deliver it at the venue of the Colloquium. I no longer recall the exact dictated wording, nothing inspirational, just the usual felicitations and injunctions to turn that ram into asun for general feasting.
Those who attended the event will recall the grand entry of the gift – as reported by one and all, including the foreign visitors, and Chinua’s reported reaction, seated on the podium. He shook head and said, “Typical of Wole”. The ram was then led off to meet its destiny at the hands of the gathered. (As a side note, it was I who took a gift away from his seventieth at Bard University – a sobering flash of time past that resulted in my ELEGY FOR A NATION. I had that poem re-published to mark the day of his funeral.)
Our story is only beginning. On the way back from that celebration, Chinua had his accident and was flown to the United Kingdom. At the first opportunity, I made my way there and called up the High Commissioner, Dove-Edwin, who was certain to know the hospital location. It turned out that he also planned a visit that afternoon, and he agreed to give me a ride. We waited – I was joined by two others – waited, and waited, then a phone call came from him that the visit had been called off. The High Commissioner would explain why, on arrival – over a promised dinner, as compensation.
That explanation was this: Dove-Edwin had received communication that some of “Chinua’s people” – a university professor among them, who was named – had pronounced publicly that “Chinua should have known better than to accept a spotless ram from his enemy” – yes, that was the word used – “enemy”. I verified this report from various other sources. Later, an alternative diagnosis surfaced: “Chinua had been too long away from the chieftaincy politics of his hometown, otherwise he would have realized that the title that he took was coveted by some others – and these were deeply steeped in traditional psychic combat”. In short, those rivals “did him in”. Both diagnoses competed for dominance for a while, petering out eventually.
Before the promotion of that alternative cause-and-effect however, Dove-Edwin had re-scheduled, and we had a most bracing, optimistic afternoon with Chinua. Yes, our patient was eventually told the cause of the earlier postponement, and he had a good laugh. On my return to Nigeria, I could not wait to take the opportunity of a public lecture to invite all desperate enemies to please send me their rams of choice – spotless, spotted, piebald, striped or nondescript – so I could treat starving writers to free meals in my home for the rest of the year. And I promised to taste a piece of each ram before serving.
Yes, it is that same breed that continues to sow poison in the minds of the susceptible. Alas for you, it so happens that some of us insist on our own way of commemorating, of being there, even when absent. You, by contrast were never there, however ostentatiously you position yourselves at the event, or at vicarious gatherings to denounce, attribute sinister motivations, and inseminate hate against those whom your pedestrian vision cannot see. Your very loudness proclaims your absence. You were always absent. You will always be absent. So, this communication is not really meant for you but for those potential almajiri – whose minds you corrupt daily with your jeremiads in that accomodating madrassa known as Internet. As a teacher, I lament your failure to use the opportunity of the passing of a revered writer to turn your younger generation in enlightened directions. You have chosen instead to coarsen their sensibilities and breed in their minds misunderstanding, suspicion and above all – hate!
You will have understood by now how I have come to view you as no different from the homicidal clerics who arm youths with kerosene and match, cudgel and knife, a few Naira in their beggars’ bowls, and dispatch them to set fire to structures of comradely cohabitation, of reflection, of mind enlargement, and destroy communities of learning. Your gospel of separatism goes beyond the geographical – in which I have not the slightest interest! – but the humanistic. The difference is in the weapon – in your case, poison, mind corrosion. The means – Internet, and its wide open, undiscriminating generosity. That is where you lay spores of poison, and doom future generations to a confinement of human relationships within the darkest corners of the mind.
You are beyond pity. Kindly absent your selves from my funeral, when that event finally intrudes.
Wole SOYINKA
After reading this, I am reminded of that ever-present and hated question in elementary school examination of my day: “why did Africa remain a dark continent for so long?” Even in our young minds, we thought the question, painting Africa as “dark”, was terrible but the answer had nothing to do with psychic and “occultic” powers. Our answers were expected to include facts like mosquitoes, etcetera which made Africa inhospitable for the white man.
Of course the colonial powers from which such questions flowed down would not, perhaps, mind the double entendre!
What twisted minds! TOLA.
THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013. 12: 06 p.m. [GMT]
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It’s Richard Dowden, again, but this time: “The G8′S Here, Time To Act On Tax Havens”!
When I first saw that Britain had put tax, transparency and trade on the agenda of this week’s G8 meeting my reaction was surprise and celebration. At last the government had picked up on the scandal of huge multinational companies operating in poor countries but registering themselves in offshore tax havens that demand no transparency or accountability (and have exceedingly low tax regimes). In some cases virtually none at all.
Richard Dowden
When Starbucks, Google and Amazon were found to be paying virtually no tax in the UK rip-off of Britain became the focus of David Cameron’s global tax crusade. Yet it is in poor countries, particularly in Africa – where a nation’s present economic advantage is only their mineral or agricultural wealth – that the big rip-off is causing most pain.
Death and taxes are the two certainties in life. But not, apparently, if you are a global company which can afford the world’s best legal and financial brains to arrange your tax affairs. Many of them avoid paying taxes to the governments of poor countries they actually work in through a series of perfectly legal scams. Much of the vast wealth accumulated by many of these global companies then flows through the City of London and, despite the fact that many of them don’t pay much tax here either, this is deemed to benefit the UK.
Elsewhere the signs of poverty creation are clearly visible and immense. According to a recent report from Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based think tank, and the African Development Bank, these scams sucked $859 billion out of poor countries in 2010, ten times more than the $88 billion they received in aid. This is not new. GFI estimates that up to $1.4 trillion was lost to Africa between 1980 and 2009 through mispricing and transfer pricing by large corporates.
It is not just corrupt dictators getting their loot out of their own countries. The vast majority of this illicit flow is from tax evasion, mispricing and transfer pricing by large companies. These occur when, for example, a mining company operating in Sierra Leone, registers in the Cayman Islands. It then “sells” its product from the Sierra Leonean company to the Cayman Islands company at a price way below its market value – and pays the tiny amount of tax there accordingly. Or it pays its expensive expatriate workers outside the country or imports equipment at a very low price so that Sierra Leone is left with a tiny proportion of the true tax value of the company’s activities and its own resources.
The only existing regulation of these flows is the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, the MCMAATM which makes Dickens’ Circumlocution Office sound like a model of simplicity. It doesn’t even provide for automatic information exchange.
The UK is responsible for about 10 of the world’s 50-odd tax havens. These Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies make nothing, produce nothing. They simply offer secrecy and low tax rates to anyone anywhere. Until now successive UK governments have said that they are self governing and therefore they cannot interfere. That was very similar to one of the excuses given by the government when it opposed the abolition of the slave trade at the end of the 18th Century. A start would be to enforce some transparency on these grotesquely rich but utterly unproductive tax havens to make sure that poor countries struggling to develop get a fair price for their mineral and agricultural wealth.
This is particularly important for African countries at this very moment. After more than ten years of growth many of the continent’s 54 counties are beginning to make that growth self-generating and sustainable. But most countries are still primary producers dependent on world demand and price for their natural resources: oil, gas, minerals and agriculture. So this is the continent’s one-off opportunity to become self sustaining, adding value by manufacturing. If the bulk of the income due now is leaching out though tax havens, Africa and many other parts of the world in a similar position, will be stuck in poverty and the dysfunctional aid relationship for decades.
With the City of London and Britain’s reputation for integrity at the heart of this, it is time to use the G8 meeting to reach global consensus and strengthen the laws on transparency and accountability. The government has already moved boldly on bribery. The new UK Bribery Act which came into effect last year has banned one widely used technique. Some companies would for example contract Mr X at £50 million a year for unspecific services of which he would use £49 million to ensure it got the contracts it wanted. At the same time the company executives could say, hand on heart: “We never pay bribes”. That route is now outlawed. Companies will be held responsible for all bribes paid in their name to secure a contract. Similar strong action is needed on mispricing and transfer pricing. A multilateral agreement to make companies report sales, employees, taxes paid and profits would be a start.
The government has said it is committed to making a tax deal work for the poorest and the Prime Minister has already written to the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies to call for greater transparency and more sharing of information with the UK. There is also more consensus at EU level that a new multilateral deal should be agreed on information exchange by the end of this year. The G8 meeting at Loch Erne in Northern Ireland would be the perfect place to makes these rules global.
Richard Dowden is Director of the Royal African Society and author of Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles published by Portobello Books.
RELATED ESSAYS:
http://emotanafricana.com/2011/10/26/that-dowdens-lecture-at-nigerias-51st-anniversary/
http://emotanafricana.com/2011/11/03/the-dowden-lecture-another-view/
THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013. 3:34:52 p.m. [GMT]
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200 Nigerian girls trafficked to Russia monthly – Ambassador
The ambassador said 240 Nigerian girls were deported in 2012.
No fewer than 200 Nigerian girls are trafficked every month to Russia for prostitution, the Nigeria’s ambassador to Russia, Asam Asam, has said.
Mr. Asam, who spoke against the backdrop of consular challenges faced by the embassy, disclosed this in an interview with the Europe Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria in Berlin.
An investigation revealed that the crime has declined in Western Europe following strict laws on illegal migration, and joint efforts by Nigeria and the governments of those countries to curb the menace.
However, attention has shifted to Eastern Europe as the new destination for the trade.
“The major consular challenge we face in Moscow is the influx of trafficked persons from Nigeria, not less than 200 girls are trafficked every month, and we have so many of them exposed to danger.
“Some are thrown out of the window and treated harshly, there must be a way of stopping these racketeering; these girls are not tourists, students or government officials yet they are given visas from the Russian embassy in Abuja.
“So far we have deported over 240 girls since 2012. You will be shocked at the extent of resistance from the girls; we tell them Russia is not a destination for prostitutes, yet they still come,” Mr. Asam said.
In a related story currently in the news, the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry has reportedly told Nigeria the U.S. government considers Nigeria not doing enough to stop the trafficking of persons. See:
http://saharareporters.com/news-page/trafficking-persons-nigeria-not-doing-enough-us-says
He said the mission tries to curb the menace by arranging deportation exercise for those caught, but the challenges are enormous.
The envoy said such intervention would be more effective at the point of entry, saying “the strategy is to stop them from Nigeria, and fish out those involved in the trade.”
“For instance a well known Russian human trafficker who has been in the trade for about 20 years was caught in Nigeria.
“The National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons( NAPTIP) was on the verge of releasing her before I filed a protest from Moscow to the Comptroller General of Immigration,” Mr. Asama stressed.
He said even the parents of those trafficked encourage their children
“I spoke to the mother of one of the girls and she said her daughter should remain in Moscow and try to survive the ordeal, this is very sad indeed coming from one’s parent,” he said.
He tasked the media on sensitising the public on the dangers of trafficking in Russia, saying “this East European nation has become a new destination for them, and believe me it is a very big crime here.’’
Mr. Asam, however, said that other Nigerians who reside in that country were students, and professionals in various fields.
(NAN)
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2013 Confederation Cup (4): Tahiti, The Cinderalla of the 2013 Confederation Cup! – Tola Adenle
[In American College Basketball Final 64 teams for the NCAA tournament every year, there are always the teams termed "Cinderella", like the mythical Cinderella of children's stories. These teams go to the tournament known as The Big Dance" with nary a chance but many have surprised hallowed teams and gotten them sent home earlier than expected.
I remember the early 90s West Regional where Loyola Marymount was the Cinderella and its big star, Hank Gathers who would collapse and die of arrhythmia during the series - struck fears into the hearts of likes of University of Nevada-Las Vegas players and fans as the boys dismantled a much storied team. It would take Gathers' death to stop the Loyola boys!
Well, here comes football with its own version of a Cinderella team, the boys from the South Pacific. We already know they scored against Nigeria; what's up next against mighty Brazil?
They are already winners in my book!
Follow the link to check out a real-life Cinderella story. TOLA]
Tahiti is not even a country – it is the largest island in French Polynesia, in the South Pacific. Remote is one word for Tahiti – the nearest major country is New Zealand, approximately 2,500 miles away – BBC SPORTS
Tahiti scores but loses to Nigeria at Confed Cup
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
Read More:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013/soccer/wires/06/17/2080.ap.soc.confed.cup.tahiti.nigeria.3rd.ld.writethru.570/index.html#ixzz2Wn4tgqRp
Read More:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013/soccer/wires/06/17/2080.ap.soc.confed.cup.tahiti.nigeria.3rd.ld.writethru.570/index.html#ixzz2Wn4tgqRp
THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013. 8:35:29 p.m. [GMT]
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Incredible NASA photographs of Cotopaxi volcano, Ecuador, as seen from Space – Yahoo News
The Cotopaxi Volcano
On February 19, 2000, Space Shuttle Endeavour passed over the highly active and dangerous volcanic zone of the Andes in Ecuador. Endeavour mapped elevations on most of the Earth’s land surface during the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). There have been more than 50 eruptions of Mt. Cotopaxi alone since 1738.
The digital elevation model acquired by SRTM, with its resolution of 25 m x 25 m, is so rich in detail that you can even make out an inner crater with a diameter of 120 m by 250 m inside the outer crater (800 m x 650 m). Blue and green correspond to the lowest elevations in the image, while beige, orange, red, and white represent increasing elevations.
Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
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LeBron & colleagues turned on the heat at Miami to hand San Antonio a loss in the NBA Finals
The Miami Heat handed the San Antonio Spurs a 95-88 loss in Game at Miami last night for a back to back NBA Championship. LeBron scored 37 points as the Heat wore out the older young men as experts have predicted that the drawn out best-of-7 would not be in favor of the Spurs.
FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013. 5:26:40 a.m. [GMT]
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FIFA 2013 Confed Cup (5): Diego Forlan celebrates international milestone with dagger into Nigeria’s heart!
Centurion Forlan downs Nigeria
FROM FIFA.COM
Diego Forlan marked his 100th appearance for Uruguay with a brilliant left-footed drive to see his side beat Nigeria 2-1 and put themselves in a strong position to qualify for the FIFA Confederations Cup semi-finals.
Uruguay captain Diego Lugano had given his side the lead with a scuffed effort from a Forlan cross, before John Obi Mikel levelled with a goal on his 50th Nigerian cap.
The game was fragmented in the opening stages, but the cagey affair sparked into life thanks to theUruguay skipper.
Forlan received the ball on the Uruguay left and drilled a cross towards Edinson Cavani. The Napoli forward tried to flick the ball on at the near post but did not connect and Lugano had the simple task of nudging the ball into the net.
Nigeria responded after Uruguay failed to capitalise on their advantage. Brown Ideye played the ball into Mikel, who skipped past goalscorer Lugano and placed a left-footed shot past the despairingFernando Muslera.
Nigeria pressed in the closing stages of the first half, but they could not convert their possession into meaningful opportunities. Uruguay then came out with renewed purpose in the second half and it was a fairytale goal just five minutes after the interval.
Cavani received the ball in space in between the Nigeria defence and midfield and laid the ball on for Forlan. The 34-year-old let the ball run across his body before dispatching a left-footed drive into the top corner. He became the second centurion, after Andrea Pirlo on Sunday, to mark his 100th cap with a goal in this tournament.
Cavani had several good opportunities to extend Uruguay’s lead, skewing a shot wide after going clear and heading past the post when left unmarked from a free kick.
The Napoli forward’s profligacy did not matter though, as Forlan’s centenary strike sees his side head into the final group game against Tahiti in a strong position to qualify. Nigeria face Spain in Fortaleza, with La Furia Roja needing a point to guarantee their place in the semi-finals.
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Watch out, your webcam may be turned on, but not by you, & monitoring your most private moments!
Webcam Hackers ‘Watched Me In The Bath’ Says Woman In BBC ‘Ratting’ Investigation
By Michael Rundle, Huffington Post UK: 20/06/2013
Charities and police have warned that computer hackers are able to watch victims through their laptop webcams.
The practice – known as ‘Ratting’ (for ‘Remote Administration Tool‘) – is a variation of standard virus or malware attacks which have affected computers for decades.
By coaxing users to install malicious software on their computers, hackers are able to access video feeds from any webcam without the user knowing that they’re watching.
The phenomenon was detailed in an extensive investigation by Ars Technica earlier this year, and now BBC 5 Live has produced its own report, which includes calls by British police and charities for users to be more vigilant.
The BBC report quotes Rachel Hyndman, a 20-year-old student who says hackers may have watched her while she watched a DVD in the bath. She says her webcam was switched on without her knowledge while the computer was (presumably) safely placed away from the water.
Hyndman said in the report: “I was sitting in the bath, trying to relax, and suddenly someone potentially has access to me in this incredibly private moment and it’s horrifying.
“To have it happen to you without your consent is horribly violating.”
The BBC report also detailed how access to compromised computers is bought and sold online – $1 for a woman’s webcam, or a single cent for access to a man’s machine – and also quotes a hacker who said he did it for a “laugh”.
He told the BBC:
“The risk of getting caught, that someone would do something about you trolling people, isn’t that much. It’s just a bit of a laugh”
Chief executive of Childnet International Will Gardner said that while such attacks may not be “commonplace”, they do happen – and that computer users should learn to take precautions. Those include installing anti-virus software and even covering up a webcam when not in use.
An Association of Chief Police Officers representative told the BBC that accessing webcams without permission is illegal, and would be prosecuted wherever possible.
FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013. 2:36 p.m. [GMT]
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Serena, Maria, enough of the tabloid-type exchanges; let’s see a real tournament at 2013 Wimbledon!- Tola Adenle
It’s 2004 all over again except that this time, the press finally gets what it wants: a real “war” between two top contenders.
Back in 2004, there was no room for tabloid as Serena returned to the scene of her two shining conquests of consecutive trophies at the All England Club, and the press, especially in England where I happened to be that Summer. Cubic yards of ink and tons of newsprint were expended by the English media, including The Times on what seemed aimed at distracting Serena and disrupting her momentum to a straight third crown at Wimbledon.
I think she was swallowing the tabloid-ish reports as soon as they hit the news stand, and by the time she got to Center Court – all due regards to Maria whose talents have never been disputed – Serena’s feet seemed to be of clay and the nerves seemed very apparent. She defeated herself in that match-up, if truth be told, and a star who was waiting to have her big moment was born.
Now, the press is giddy with a real “war”: there’s no Richard in sight (Venus & Serena’s dad) to vilify in the papers over statements like how he bought a book to coach two kids he and his wife had after they had first stopped having babies; no outrages over Serena’s anger at being cheated by a referee who awarded a point she scored to Capriati nor of Serena’s infamous US Open rant at a referee who called foot faults – wrongly – against her. This is a “real war” of two females going at IT over a boy as men would always preferably like to see women, a real mud fight.
That guy must be walking on Cloud 9, picking & choosing from WTA’s Top 10. I wonder who’s next!
Serena drew the first blood in the Rolling Stone interview, and must be the one to stop it. She must STOP READING THE PRESS and focus on whatever goal she has set for herself, is. To retain her crown, she has seven matches to slug out, and with age comes unexpected glitches even as prepared and tough her regime of training and diet have been. She must remember what Sloane Stephens achieved in Australia. My penny’s worth: Serena should call it a day for Singles competitions at the US Open this September; ditto Venus; ditto Roger Federer.
Won’t it be great for fans of both young women to have them in the finals where that anger may produce one of the best women’s finals ever! May she who plays better at the Championship Match – should that scenario occur – win.
And Maria must go out and prove to the world she has what it takes to repeat the 2004 victory against a young lady who, with her and a few other young ladies of the WTA, have raised the ladies game to a level that has earned it as much – if not more – following than the men’s game.
SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013. 8:22:29 p.m. [GMT]
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An open letter to Nigeria's President Jonathan - Tola Adenle (2)
AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT JONATHAN
When Silence may NOT be golden
While I’ve written a lot about your government since the acting capacity under Late Alhaji Yar Adua, this is perhaps the first letter directed to you. Your predecessor, retired General Obasanjo did receive at least one apart from countless essays on his administration in my old newspaper essays for…
This essay, first published within the first 6 months of this blog's life - November 14, 2011, continues to attract readers, including this past week when the blog crossed multiple landmarks in readerships. It is hereby represented for new readers and old ones who may have missed it, especially with the clouds on both Iweala - the direction she has led the economy she supposedly "directs" & Madueke - another ethics allegation that remains unquestioned by President Jonathan and, therefore, unanswered by the minister. TOLA, June 23, 2013.
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The ugly face of China: Chinese tourists abroad are rude
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights
By Amy Li
After almost every ‘rude Chinese tourist’ story, unfortunately, made SCMP.com’s top-10 list, I decided to give the question some serious thought
They are seen as pushy, loud, impolite, unruly, and they are everywhere.
And although destination countries welcome the tourism dollars the Chinese spend, they loathe the chaos and hassle some mainland tourists bring upon their cities and other tourists.
“Why can’t they just behave?” people wonder, some aloud.
I have been asking myself the same question in the past months after reporting on the uncivilised, sometimes galling behaviour of some compatriots.
It seems that every time a “rude Chinese tourist” story is published on SCMP.com, it goes straight into the site’s top 10 most read articles - one such article even managed to crawl back to the top months after it was posted. So I decided to give the question some serious thought.
I read up on the topic, talked to tourism experts and travel agents and chatted with some of these tourists who are now at the centre of public anger.
It soon dawned on me that the real question to ask is: “Why are the Chinese rude?”
Yong Chen, tourism researcher and post-doctoral fellow at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said most “bad” tourists don’t intend to be “bad” or “tourists”, they are just being themselves – they are being Chinese.
Education makes a difference
Not every Chinese tourist is a rude one, and educated people are usually better behaved than those who have had a lower standard of education, said Chen.
This could be why middle-aged or older tourists who have been deprived of or received little education during China’s politically tumultuous times tend to act more unruly. Many of them do not speak English, and some are not fluent Putonghua speakers. Their knowledge of the destination country and its culture is often at best outdated or non-existent.
This might explain the behaviour of a “rogue” mainland couple who recently visited Hong Kong with a group. They called the police and demanded HK$3,000 yuan in compensation after being made to wait two hours for their coach. The travel agency later said the coach had broken down and accused them of “blackmailing”.
Disregard for customs and rules
Jenny Wang, a Beijing-based Maldives travel agent, said uneducated tourists usually turn a blind eye to local rules and customs.
A Chinese man who was recently vacationing at a Maldives resort flipped out after discovering that the restaurant where he wanted to eat was fully booked, Wang said. He yelled threats and slurs at Chinese staff until one member was in tears.
“You cannot reason with these kinds of people,” Wang said. “They think they can do anything with their money.”
But one thing many Chinese vacationers don’t want to do with their money is tip – a custom in some places which many have ignored, Wang said.
Though most travel agents in China would educate their clients about tipping in a foreign country ahead of their trip, most people ended up tipping very little or none.
Some are not used to the idea of tipping, and they fail to understand that staff working at the Maldives resorts, who usually earn a meagre salary, rely heavily on tips, Wang said.
This has created increasing tensions between the Chinese and their hosts.Staff would naturally prefer serving guests from countries with a tipping culture. Other staff have gone after Chinese clients and asked openly for tips, a rare thing for them to do in the past.
Lawless for a reason
Students at Ewha University in Seoul, known for its beautiful campus, have recently complained about an influx of Chinese tourists, said the school.
Apparently taking photos on campus was not enough. Some camera-toting Chinese would also stride into libraries and take photos without the permission of students, according to media reports.
“As much as we want to keep the campus open to the local community,” said a university representative, “we’d like to prioritise our students’ right to study in a quiet and safe environment.”
Ewha resolved the crisis by putting up multi-language signs advising tourists to stay clear of study areas.
It seems that thousands of years after Confucius admonished his students not to “impose on others what you yourself don’t desire”, the Chinese now act in quite the opposite way.
Such people, both overseas and at home, selfishly skirted rules for a reason, said Chen.
Living in China, where the rule-of-law doesn’t exist, means everyone has to look out for their own interest. It also means people have little or no respect for laws.
This is bound to happen when ordinary folk are forced to watch their laws being violated every day by their leaders, Chen said, citing the Chinese idiom, shang xing xia xiao, meaning “people in lower class follow what their leaders in the upper class do”.
How long do we have to put up with bad tourists?
China and its people are paying a price for the bad behaviour of their tourists.
A poll by the Public Opinion Programme of the University of Hong Kong recently found that the number of Hongkongers holding negative feelings towards Beijing and mainland Chinese is up by about 40 per cent since November.
Following that survey, SCMP.com conducted another online poll on Wednesday, headlined “What makes some Hongkongers dislike mainland China and its people?”
As of noon, more than 50 per cent readers blamed the negative feelings on “ill-behaved tourists”.
“The Chinese government and travel agencies should take the initiative to educate our tourists,” Chen said, urging co-operation from both authorities and private sectors.
While many argue that historically American and Japanese tourists were also criticised for their bad behaviour when they became wealthy enough and traveled abroad for the first time, Chen said the Chinese should not use this as an excuse.
In fact, the Communist Party’s Central Guidance Commission for Building Spiritual Civilisation and the China National Tourism Administration have recently issued a 128-character-long rhyme to remind tourists of behaving in a “civilised manner” on the road. The topic has also been a big hit on China’s social media, where bloggers discuss and criticise the uncivlised behaviour of their compatriots.
But many are not optimistic that the situation will change any time soon.
“Chinese tourists have a long way to go before they will be respected by the world,” said Wang.
The first two comments on the posting
esears2004@yaho…Jun 14th 2013
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Chinese teenager defaces 3500-year old Temple of Luxor with graffiti – http://emotanafricana.com/?s=Chinese+teenager+defaces+3500-year+old+Temple+of+Luxor+with+graffiti&submit.x=9&submit.y=8&submit=Go
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3-D Printer Brings Dexterity To Children With No Fingers – Steve Henn and Cindy Carpien, NPR
The NPR is the [US] National Public Radio – TOLA
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![Richard Van As, a South African carpenter who lost a portion of his hand in an accident, assembles a Robohand and fits it to Liam Dippenaar. Liam was born without fingers on his right hand.]( "Richard Van As, a South African carpenter who lost a portion of his hand in an accident, assembles a Robohand and fits it to Liam Dippenaar. Liam was born without fingers on his right hand.")
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![Makerbot's 3-D printer can be used to make the parts for the Robohand.]( "Makerbot's 3-D printer can be used to make the parts for the Robohand.")
Courtesy of Jen Owen of Jen Martin Studios -
![Leon McCarthy, 12, does not have fingers on his left hand. He used a Robohand at school for the first time last month.]( "Leon McCarthy, 12, does not have fingers on his left hand. He used a Robohand at school for the first time last month.")
Courtesy of Paul McCarthy -
![The newest version of the Robohand is made of snap-together parts.]( "The newest version of the Robohand is made of snap-together parts.")
Courtesy of Jen Owen of Jen Martin Studios
Richard Van As was working in his home near Johannesburg, South Africa, in May of 2011, when he lost control of his table saw.
“It’s a possibility that it was a lack of concentration,” he says. “It’s just that the inevitable happened.”
The carpenter lost two fingers and mangled two more on his right hand. While still in the hospital, he was determined to find a way to get back to work. Eventually, solving his own problem led him to work with a stranger on the other side of the world to create a mechanical hand using . Other prosthetics, including a lower jaw, have been made with the technology before, but making a hand is particularly tricky.
As soon as he got out of the hospital, Van As began researching prosthetics online. They cost thousands of dollars — money he didn’t have.
So in the meantime, he rigged up an artificial index finger for his right hand with materials from his shop. But he kept looking for help or a collaborator — someone who could help him fix his hand.
In time, Van As from Ivan Owen. In the video, Owen, a special effects artist and puppeteer in Bellingham, Wash., was demonstrating one of his creations, a big puppet hand that relies on thin steel cables to act like tendons, allowing the metal digits to bend.
“The complexity of the human hand has always fascinated me [and] really captured my imagination,” Owen says.
The two began working together long distance — Skyping, sharing ideas, even sending parts back and forth. Finally, Owen flew to South Africa to finish the work in person with Van As. And today, Van As has a working mechanical finger to assist him with his work.
But something else happened on Owen’s visit to South Africa: While he was there, Van As received a call from a woman seeking help for her 5-year-old son, Liam Dippenaar, who was born without fingers on his right hand. The cause was a rare congenital condition called amniotic band syndrome. In ABS, fibrous bands can wrap around a hand or a foot in utero and cut off circulation.
Van As says he and Owen looked at each other and were of one mind: ” ‘Yeah, easy, no problem.’ “
Within days, they developed a for Liam, with five aluminum fingers that opened and closed with the up and down movement of Liam’s wrist. Owen still remembers the 5-year-old’s reaction when they rigged up the device for the first time.
“He bent his wrist and made the fingers curl,” Owen says. “You could see the light bulbs go off and he looked up and said, ‘It copies me.’ It was really an incredible moment.”
Liam Dippenaar, born without fingers on his right hand, practices using his Robohand. He has gone from a crude hand to an improved 3-D printed version.
When Owen flew back to the United States, he wondered if the device could be turned into printable parts.
So he emailed , a firm that makes 3-D printing equipment, to see if the company would help out. It did, offering both Owen and Van As a free 3-D printer. “Then there was no stopping us,” Van As says.
What had previously taken the pair a week’s time or more — milling finger pieces, adjusting and tweaking parts — now took 20 minutes to redesign, print and test.
Eventually, Liam’s crude hand was replaced with the , which Van As and Owen call “Robohand.”
“After practicing with it for a little while, Liam was able to pick up a coin, grab objects of different shapes and sizes,” Owen says. “He’s a really determined little guy.”
They for Robohand on Thingiverse, a website for sharing digital designs. Anyone can download the plans and — with a 3-D printer and about $150 in parts — make a hand.
Videographer Paul McCarthy and his 12-year-old son, Leon, live in Marblehead, Mass. They discovered Robohand on the Web and decided to make one for Leon, who was born with no fingers on his left hand. Printing the parts (using a friend’s borrowed 3-D printer) was easy, the two say. But it took them a month to figure out how to string, screw and bolt together what they describe as the “Frankenstein” version. It’s still a work in progress, they say, but several weeks ago, Leon wore it to school for a tryout.
“I’m able to hold a pencil and piece of paper,” Leon says. “I’ve done a lot more than I ever thought I could, so it’s opened up a lot of new doors in my life.”
Paul McCarthy says there were few options for his son. The doctor’s advice when Leon was very young was to get used to using his hand without prosthetics and try to acquire a full range of abilities and motion. Leon should first learn to navigate the world relying on his one fully functioning hand and the partial dexterity of his other hand, the doctor advised.
“So the last time we went to visit his hand doctor, he recommended maybe we could start looking for prosthetics,” Paul McCarthy says.
And that’s when father and son found the YouTube videos of little Liam in South Africa.
So far, in addition to his work as a carpenter, Van As has fitted more than 100 children with Robohands. He doesn’t charge anything — not even for the parts — but he does want to train others to learn how to assemble the devices and properly fit kids with them.
To do that, he’s , and with more people helping, more people will get hands, he says.
Like Leon McCarthy.
“Leon came bouncing out of school with this biggest smile,” Paul McCarthy remembers. He remembers Leon saying: “Look, it’s working, the Frankenstein hand is functioning! I am holding my lunch bag.”
But getting the fit just right was hard for McCarthy and his son, and experts in prosthetics say users are bound to have these kind of challenges.
Matthew Garibaldi, director of orthotics and prosthetics in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, says that making sure a prosthetic device fits is essential for it to work well.
And there are limited options for pediatric prosthetics, Garibaldi says, because there aren’t many kids with upper-extremity amputations. That’s one reason a device like Robohand is so appealing, he says. “Its primary function is to decrease manufacturing costs and increase productivity.”
“The timeliness of this technology couldn’t be better,” Garibaldi says.
And the world of 3-D printing is moving quickly. A is now available — it’s designed to snap together like Legos. Materials for this version will cost just $5.
To view the original story and listen to the story, please follow this link:
MONDAY, JUNE24, 2013. 3:55:46 [GMT]
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Spain puts “spirited” Nigeria in its place with a 3-0 trouncing!
Spain scored early in Sunday’s match, courtesy of Jordi Alba. Alba skipped through the heart of the Nigerian defense in the third minute, eventually finishing with the right foot on goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.
Alba’s score was not just a quick moment for Spain on the pitch, either. The Spanish continually held possession, with Andres Iniesta also forcing Enyeama into a diving save in the first minute.
In the ninth minute, Cesc Fabregas almost scored, exchanging passes with Iniestabefore his attempt was poked away by Enyeama for a corner kick.
Nigeria had a shot to tie things up in the 11th minute. John Obi Mikel found JosephAkpala right at the edge of the box, but Akpala‘s shot was blocked and Sergio Ramos swung in to keep Mikel from connecting on the rebound.
That started a bit of a run for the Nigerians, whose attacking style of play won some support in Fortaleza. Sunday Mba almost scored in the 20th minute, his curling strike saved beautifully on a dive by Spain goalkeeper Victor Valdes.
Jasper Juinen/Getty ImagesRoberto Saldado missed an opportunity to increase Spain’s lead in the 26th minute when Ramos found him down the pitch.
In the 29th minute, Nigeria pressed again, as Ahmed Musa found Akpala on a beautiful cross, only to see Valdes make another great save.
In the 40th minute, Fabregas’ attempt hit the post off a nice feed from Soldado.
In the 41st minute, Nigeria had its best chance to score, as Mba found Ideye on a nice cross, but Ideye flubbed the strike with a gaping hole in the goal inviting him to finish.
After one half of play, Spain was leading, 1-0. Both teams had prime opportunities to score, with the Nigerians perhaps catching the Spanish off-guard in the first half. Nigeria was well within reach after the first 45-plus minutes.
In the second half, Fernando Torres added to Spain’s lead. After subbing onto the pitch in the 60th minute, Torres scored two minutes later on a beautiful header off a pass from Pedro Rodriguez.
It was 2-0, Spain.
Alba collected his second goal of the game in the 88th minute, as Spain weathered some attacks by Nigeria to eventually go on to a 3-0 victory on Sunday.
Uruguay 8, Tahiti 0
FIFA.COM
MONDAY, JUNE 24, 2013. 4:23 a.m. [GMT]
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