For lease= half a African country

Is this modern day colonialism? From the Financial Times-

Daewoo Logistics of South Korea has secured farmland in Madagascar to grow food crops for Seoul, in a deal that diplomats and consultants said was the largest of its kind.

The company said it had leased 1.3m hectares of farmland - about half the size of Belgium - from Madagascar's government for 99 years. It plans to ship the maize and palm oil harvests back to South Korea. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The pursuit of foreign farm investments is a clear sign of how countries are seeking food security following this year's crisis - which saw record prices for commodities such as wheat and rice and food riots in countries from Egypt to Haiti.

Prices for agricultural commodities have tumbled by about half from such levels but countries remain concerned about long-term supplies.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation warned this year that the race by some countries to secure farmland overseas risked creating a "neo-colonial" system. Those fears could be increased by the fact that Daewoo's farm in Madagascar represents about half the African country's arable land, according to estimates by the US government.

Shin Dong-hyun, a senior manager at Daewoo Logistics in Seoul, said the company would develop the arable land for farming over the next 15 years, using labour from South Africa, and intended to replace about half South Korea's maize imports.

South Korea, a heavily populated but resource-poor nation, is the fourth-largest importer of maize and among the 10 largest buyers of soyabeans.

This deal with leave Daewoo farming almost half of Madagascar's arable. land.(I read that in another article that I've lost the link to. Half the area of Belgium is pretty sizable) Foreign corporations have entered into agreements with countries where they mine natural resources. Is food any different than gold, silver, platinum? Of course it is, because you don't eat those minerals. The deals though seem similar to me.

Someone don't love Lucy

The latest scandal from Africa-

NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenyan security agents seized and erased a video showing the first lady slapping a government official, apparently angered because he introduced her by the name of a woman widely believed to be the president's second wife, officials said Friday.

Kenya's media regulator gave President Mwai Kibaki's office two weeks to explain the incident, which happened at the president's official residence during Wednesday's Independence Day celebration. The deadline means no response is due until after the Dec. 27 presidential election, in which polls show Mwai Kibaki is trailing and which is shaping up to be the closest in Kenyan history.

"We don't want to pre-empt anything but the complaint is a gross violation of press freedom," said Wachira Waruru, the chairman of the Media Council of Kenya.

The complaint was lodged by Kenya's largest media house, the Nation Media Group. The Nation said security agents erased photo and television images of Lucy Kibaki slapping the government official after he called her "Wambui" -- the name of a woman many Kenyans believe has been Kibaki's second wife for 30 years. Kibaki has denied he has a second wife.

In a newspaper interview later, the official said he had slipped, introducing Lucy Kibaki as "Lucy Wambui."

I can understand the official's mistake. There was one too many Lucys to keep straight.

Note how no response is required till after the Presidential election. The Kenyan people could have a say in regards to what they think of their first lady's behavior.

Linked to- Blue Star, Leaning Straight Up, Rosemary, Woman Honor Thyself, Yankee Sailor,

Losing an engine

A aviation disaster was averted the other day.

Nationwide Airlines has praised the captain and crew of Flight 723 as the heroes of the drama that unfolded at Cape Town International Airport this week.

Chief executive officer Vernon Bricknell complimented pilot Trevor Arnold, co-pilot Daniel Perry and the crew of the flight for their "heroic efforts" that averted disaster after a Boeing 737 jet lost one its engines on take-off on Wednesday.

On Thursday the company insisted the incident had nothing to do with maintenance or the age of the aircraft.

Rather, the company said, the plane had done what it was supposed to do if a foreign object was sucked in, causing dangerous vibrations that might damage the wing: shear off its engine.

Preliminary investigations yesterday showed the engine had broken off the aircraft's starboard wing because of vibrations from damage done to the internal moving parts of the engine after it had sucked in an object while at the top end of its thrust during take-off.

The engine landed next to the runway, while the aircraft lifted off under full power. Arnold and Perry reacted instantly and kept the plane stable while flying it out of danger, moved over False Bay to jettison fuel for safety reasons and landed safely back at the airport.

In the statement, Bricknell said the engine-to-wing supporting structure was designed to "release" the engine under such circumstances to prevent structural damage to the wing.

Independent Cape Town aviation analyst Linden Birns agreed, noting a foreign object in the engine could cause further damage.

"If the engine is out of kilter, it will begin to vibrate at a very high frequency and this would cause the bolts holding the engine to the wing to shear. It is important for that to happen, to prevent damage to the wing."

A little bit of web searching showed that an engine could come off. Never heard that before, but you learn something every day. Kudos to the pilots for making a safe landing. The worst aviation disaster in US history, saw an engine detach. Because of other damage done, the plane was doomed.

Linked to- Big Dog, Third World County, Yankee Sailor,

Nigerian funds transfer

No not one of those emails but this news-

Moves to clamp down on cigarette smoking in Nigeria climaxed yesterday with the Federal Government filing a N5.3trillion suit against British-American Tobacco Plc (BAT), Phillip Morris International and International Tobacco Limited over what it said was the damage that the companies' products caused to the health of Nigerian children over the years.

The government asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to compel tobacco companies to pay the hefty sum as compensation for the damage that cigarettes have caused to young Nigerians' health. Also sued were two affiliates of BAT, British American Tobacco [Nigeria] Limited and British-American Tobacco [Investment] Limited. In the suit filed by Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, the government wants the defendants to pay N136.3 billion as special damages for selling their products to under aged persons, another N4.8 trillion as preventive damages for future expenses to be incurred by the government in paying for the damage that cigarettes cause to public health, and N130 billion more as punitive damages.


The government is contending that tobacco-related products manufactured and sold by the companies are injurious to public health.

Government's counsel Mrs. Maryam Uwais said her client wanted a court order restraining the companies from advertising and selling their tobacco-related products to under-aged Nigerians. The government also asked the court to outlaw the sale and distribution of tobacco products in children's shopping areas, child care centres and other public areas where minors are predominantly located.

Specifically, government is seeking a court injunction compelling the companies and their agents to cease the marketing, promotion, distribution and sale of the products to minors and under-aged persons.

The plaintiff also asked for a court order restraining the defendants from representing or portraying to persons under the age of 18 years any alluring and misleading image regarding tobacco-related products

Hans Bader writes-

This is just one of many lawsuits by Nigerian officials against American tobacco companies. A group of Nigerian state governments, led by the bloody rulers of Kano State, previously sued the tobacco companies for billions of dollars, seeking to compel the tobacco companies to pay smokers’ health care costs.

Nigeria’s Kano State is almost single-handedly responsible for reviving the terrible childhood disease of polio, which an international campaign had virtually wiped out throughout the world by 2002. Given Nigeria’s terrible public health record, it is hard to take seriously the public-health concerns that Nigerian officials are invoking to go after the tobacco companies.

Frankly, life expectancy in Nigeria is so low that smokers in that country will typically die of something other than tobacco-related ailments anyway. And the $44 billion sought just by Nigeria’s federal government amounts to more than half of the country’s Gross National Product (GNP).

Nigeria's history, all well and true, is mostly irrelevant when it comes to their lawsuit against the tobacco companies. What is at work here, is a country seeing a legal precedent and trying to get their own piece of the action. I have no sympathy for tobacco companies, they been peddling their poison for too long. They're just getting what they deserve.

Disclosure- My mother died of lung cancer at age 53 in 1985.

Hat tip- Overlawyered
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Decision time

Some news from Egypt. Who says women in the Arab world don't have a choice?(Cue the sarcastic laughter.)

Linked to- DragonLady, High Desert Wanderer, Outside the Beltway, Samantha Burns,

A young bedouin in Egypt's Sinai peninsula has been sentenced to have his tongue cut out or hand over more camels after he made "naughty" remarks to a shepherdess, local media reported on Tuesday.

A tent-based tribal court in the desert region sentenced the unnamed man to pay 40 camels compensation to the woman as well as either have his tongue cut out or cough up another five camels, the Egyptian Gazette said.

It is now up to the woman, who hails from a different tribe, whether she would rather have the amputated tongue or additional camel.

The accused was not allowed to speak during the trial, the paper reported, adding that tribal justice "has helped keep the peace and maintain stability among the tribes of the desert for generations."

The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Zoe's Ark. They get the award for the following.

N'DJAMENA, Chad - Chad charged six French citizens with kidnapping after they tried to fly out 103 African children from the remote border region with Sudan, bandaging them up to look injured and claiming they were Darfur orphans in need of rescue.

The case threatens to impede aid efforts for hundreds of thousands of Darfur refugees by intensifying already deep local suspicions about the motives of humanitarian workers.

Seventeen Europeans have been detained since Thursday, when authorities blocked an attempt by a French group calling itself L'Arche de Zoe — Zoe's Ark — to fly the African children to Europe, where they were to be placed with host families.

The French Foreign Ministry and others have cast doubt on the claims by the little-known group that the children are Darfur orphans.

"According to initial information ... there seem to be many Chadian children and even many who are not orphans," French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani told reporters in Paris on Tuesday.

What could make adults do this. Darfur is a horrendous tragedy but some of the children involved in this aren't from that region. Lets say it was a mistake, its a terrible one for children are being taken away from home, and possibly from their families.

Far more is at stake than the suspects' fates.

More than 300,000 Darfur refugees are living in camps along the Sudanese border after fleeing four years of conflict that has left more than 200,000 people dead and driven 2.5 million from their homes. The remote region along the edge of the Sahara Desert is among the least hospitable anywhere.

Aid groups operate in Chad with permission from the government of President Idriss Deby, who has expressed outrage at the group's activities and may crack down on humanitarian efforts as a result.

A statement posted on the government's Web site said Deby was "shocked by the acts of Zoe's Ark, which is trafficking children under cover of humanitarian assistance."

The allegations are a major embarrassment for France, which was Chad's colonial master until 1960 and has deep ties to the volatile region. President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday he told Deby by telephone that his government "condemns these activities."

The Zoe's Arc workers "were wrong to do what they did," Sarkozy said during a visit to the French island of Corsica. "Why were these children picked up and to what end? That's what we must know now."

The last thing Deby should do is enact some kind of crackdown. This was hopefully no more than an anomaly. Refugees from Darfur need help, and shouldn't be losers because of other people's stupidity.

The French group Zoe's Ark is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Also blogging on this news- A Blog for All
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Stock Car

Some news from South Africa. I love the line at the end of this article. What do you mean no seat belts?

Linked to- Blue Star, Jo, Pirate's Cove, Rosemary, Samantha Burns,

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — In a bizarre case of overloading, police in rural South Africa on Thursday found two cows and two goats being transported in a car barely large enough for four people.

The car, a blue Fiat Uno, was impounded after police in a town in northern KwaZulu-Natal were tipped off by residents to its unusual passengers, the South African Press Association reported.

Police spokesman Captain Jabulani Mdletshe said that, by the time the two officers had arrived at the given address, the driver had loaded the animals into his vehicle and attempted to speed away.

He eventually stopped the car, which was unable to outrun the police, and fled into nearby bushes, SAPA said.

The animals were handed over to a stock theft unit and police were investigating.

The report did not say if they were wearing seat belts.

Laughing stock

From The Daily Telegraph

The malnutrition that afflicts millions of Zimbabweans has reduced the country to a "laughing stock", President Robert Mugabe has admitted.

Distributing equipment to black farmers resettled on land seized from white owners, he said: "We have become the laughing stock because of hunger. We all need to eat, whether you are Zanu-PF or MDC. Let's unite."

Since Mr Mugabe began confiscating farms Zimbabwe has gone from being an agricultural exporter to a country where millions need food aid. He blames supposed Western sabotage for the situation, rather than his own actions.

Classic, blame everyone but yourself for the problems besetting the country you are supposed to lead. Politicians of all stripes do this, but as Betsy said it really takes some gumption in Mugabe's case. A country once able to feed itself, now needs food aid. Robert Mugabe is over 80 years old, so we can hope he won't be President for much longer. Unfortunately Zimbabwe is a basket case at present and unlikely to improve in the interim.

Linked to- DragonLady, High Desert Wanderer, Leaning Straight Up, Perri Nelson,

Out of Food

From The London Times-

The OK supermarket in Mbare township is so empty that your voice echoes off the high warehouse roof.

On row after row of white shelving, wiped clean each day, sit a dozen cabbages. The bakery has ten plain scones. That is all the food there is in the largest supermarket serving tens of thousands of people in the oldest, and teeming, township in Harare.

One night last week, Rosa, a church volunteer, scoured Mbare for supplies to make the daily ration of maizemeal, the national staple, and some green vegetables, to be cooked without vegetable oil and often without salt. She found two loaves of bread.

“How do I feed the 14 people in my house with two loaves of bread?” Rosa asked. “Sometimes there is nothing and you go to bed with no dinner. We are living like orphans.”

Her neighbour’s breast milk for her one-year-old daughter dried up recently, she said. “She couldn’t find fresh milk or sterilised milk anywhere. So she feeds the child on Mazoe.” It is a brand of orange cordial.

It is now ten weeks since President Mugabe forced businesses to slash prices of all goods and services in the belief that he could crush inflation, which he says is a plot by the Zimbabwean private sector, in collusion with Western governments, to overthrow him.

Two things have happened: inflation has rocketed and, according to the Government, the country will run out of wheat in three days. Zimbabweans appear set to face an almost total absence of food and ordinary household goods. An eruption of public anger, to be met with violent suppression by Mr Mugabe’s security forces, is likely to follow, observers say.

Initially Mr Mugabe’s June 25 price blitz sparked a gleeful storming of shops, where managers looked on aghast as their businesses were stripped at the Government’s bidding.

The situation in Zimbabwe is a disgrace. Is there anything the world can do to save the people of that country?

A military action to topple Mugabe? Some would compare it to Iraq, when did Zimbabwe threaten anyone but its own people. Mugabe, who is 83 years old, is unlikely to step down voluntarily. Leaders of all stripes, don't like to relinquish power. It is like a narcotic, once hooked, the politician sees life without it as hopeless or not worth it.

Could Mugabe be bribed to go into retirement? A villa and bank account in Switzerland and amnesty for all crimes? As repugnant as doing a deal with this devil would be, I'd do it to save the people of Zimbabwe. Forgive one despicable man to save thousands or millions I think would be worth it.

Bottom line- I don't see conditions in Zimbabwe improving till Mugabe leaves office. That isn't likely to happen before his death.

Hat tip- Betsy
Jammiewearing fool is also discussing this news.
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Lots of ghosts

The country of Cameroon is trying hard to regain the top spot on the most corrupt list.

Yaounde - Cameroon has been paying some 20 000 ghost workers on its civil service payroll at a cost of millions of dollars a month, the central African country's finance minister said on Thursday.

"To our great surprise, we discovered that 20 000 of the people on the government wage bill were ghost workers," Economy and Finance Minister Polycarpe Abah Abah told a news conference.

"Of these, 13 000 were already dead and the remainder were civil servants earning a double salary," he said.

A joint study by the ministries of economy and finance and of public service also found 10 000 fake pensioners.

The discovery of the 20 000 fake workers comes on top of 45 000 already discovered during a census last August.

Some 50 000 civil servants were laid off in Cameroon in the mid-1990s under pressure from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to reduce a 200 000-strong public work force.

Some of those fired managed to get their names back on the payroll with the help of corrupt colleagues, officials say.

Foreign donors made tackling rampant graft a condition for cancelling billions of dollars in foreign debt last year and President Paul Biya has embarked on a well-publicised anti-corruption crusade.

Cameroon ranked 138 out of 163 countries on anti-graft group Transparency International's 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index. In 1999 it was ranked the most corrupt

I like how Minister Abah Abah acts surprised. Did you know Abah is Haba backwords. 45,000 fake workers in a nation of 17 million. I thought the Philippines was bad.

Also note this news. The publisher of an English language paper tried and convicted in absentia. What for? A series of stories on local corruption.

Don't worry Cameroon, you'll be back on top in no time.

Linked to- Adam, Bullwinkle, Right Wing Nation, Webloggin,

Scrap dealer

Some news from Liberia.

MONROVIA (Reuters) - Authorities in Liberia said on Wednesday a large ammunition cache they thought they had discovered while investigating a possible coup plot was in fact scrap metal destined for recycling.

The supposed cache was discovered during a raid on Sunday on an unfinished building in a town on the main road to Ivory Coast, fuelling speculation it was linked to an alleged scheme to smuggle weapons into the country.

Liberian police and soldiers from the U.N. peacekeeping force carried out the raid, which police officials said at the time had unearthed mostly new AK-47 machinegun ammunition.

"The fact of the matter is those items were just empty shells," Liberia's presidential press secretary Cyrus Badio told Reuters. "The person in question is a scrap dealer."

Gbargna, where the discovery was made, served as a headquarters of the main rebel group during a 14-year on-off civil war in Liberia, which ended in 2003.

You would hope police and soldiers would know what were weapons(arms) and what weren't. That's hoping they weren't trained in America by this agency, if they were anything is possible.(Sarcastic laughter time)

Gullible

Des Gregor is lucky to be alive.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian farmer who was kidnapped and beaten in Mali after walking into an Internet bride scam has pleaded with people to be careful looking for online love.

South Australian farmer Des Gregor, 56, returned to Australia on Sunday night after being held hostage by machete-armed bandits in Africa for 12 days.

"I was tied, bound by the legs, and that was only probably for a couple of days because they knew that I was going to cooperate. There was always one bloke sleeping at the door, there was no way out," Gregor told Australian media.

Love-struck Gregor arrived in Mali last month to meet his supposed fiancee, Natacha, whom he had "met" on the Internet, and collect a dowry of gold bars worth $100,000.

Instead, the wheat and sheep farmer was picked up at the airport in a car and driven to a single bedroom apartment in the capital, Bamako, which was full of armed men.

Gregor was told his limbs would be hacked off unless his family in Australia paid a $100,000 ransom.

The scam was only stopped and Gregor freed when Australian and Mali police in turn duped the kidnappers into letting Gregor enter the Canadian embassy in Bamako to collect the ransom.

Mali is one of the world's poorest countries, with a prolonged drought hitting the mainly farming and fishing-based economy.

This story sounds like a variation on the Nigerian letter scam. A big dowry for a woman coming from a poor country. How many red flags did there have to be? Greed almost always gets the better of people.

Note- The kidnappers weren't very smart either by allowing Mr. Gregor to visit the Canadian embassy. Maybe they watched this movie too often and thought they'd get their victim out in the end.

Linked to- Bright & Early, Leaning Straight Up, Mark My Words, Morewhat, Perri Nelson,

Going nuts or Bull elephant control

Disney is exporting a rather odd type of medical assistnace.

When I was last in South Africa, I was lucky enough to visit one of the big wildlife reserves. But was upset to learn that the elephant population was doing too well for its own good. The herds were expanding at such a rapid rate that they were outgrowing the preserves and wandering off into nearby villages, where they were likely to encounter angry residents who wouldn't hesitate to kill them. Last year Disney sent vets from Animal Kingdom to the Welgevonden Game Reserve in South Africa where they performed vasectomies on four bull elephants in hopes of controlling the exploding elephant population. Now, they are returning to the same area to perform laparoscopic vasectomies on six to 10 bull elephants.

The Orlando Sentinel even has the video.(Edited of course)Will PETA get mad at Disney or applaud the corporation? Stay tuned.

Linked to- Blue Star, Jo, Perri Nelson, Third World County,

The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Obiri Konjo Yeboah. He gets the award for the following.

A man of God of Ghaniain extraction was arrested and interrogated at Entebbe Airport after he attempted to clear a machine which, police say, he has been using to deliver electric current on unsuspecting worshippers during church service.

"Pastor" Obiri Konjo Yeboah on July 5 failed to convince Aviation Police officers why he needed this machine to do God's work. He is now facing serious charges including fraud and false pretence," Police Spokesman Asan Kasingye told Sunday Monitor yesterday.

Police said the machine can be worn like a corset on the body. It also can generate up to 12 volts.

"When [he] touches his flock, they fall down [thinking] he is using super natural powers," Mr Asan Kasingye said. The machine is placed on any part of the body and gives a pleasant electric shock to whoever touches you.

The waterproof electric machine is activated within 10 seconds and can emit sparks of static electricity between the user's fingers while in darkness. The Yigal Mesika Company in Los angels America manufactures the machine known for freaking people's minds.

Mr Kasingye said the machine using the body as a conductor of electricity, transfers the current to the person in contact but the one using the device remains unaffected.

Other "Born Again" pastors including the head of the National Council of Born Again Churches (NCBC), a body that regulate Pentecostal churches, are calling for prosecution of Yebowa.

*****

Yeboah is a pastor in We Are One Ministry Church on Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road, Makerere. His father, other pastors say, is Obiri Yeboah, the controversial pioneer of miracle healing in Uganda.

Yeboah ia now claiming the machine was meant to be a birthday gift for his teenage children. This editorial sheds more light on this preacher and others like him.

Indeed, the Bible warns us that there will be false prophets of different shades in the last days; they will deceive the nations with their works claiming to be inspired by the spirit of God Almighty. Today, we see miracle men and women all over the place, they have invaded our sitting rooms on television; the minds of many have been twisted by the preacher people - of course, this is not to say that amongst the many hellfire and brimstone preachers we do not have true evangelicals.


However, the arrest of 'Pastor' Obirir Konjo Yeboah while trying to clear an electric charge releasing device at Entebbe Airport Customs Office is a revelation.

Probably, for the very first time our vigilant police may have stumbled upon the explanation to the 'miraculous' falling down that has been going on in many churches. Most of us have either seen in real life or watched on television how pastors touch people who then simply collapse!

Despite the miracle falling down, many persons who have purportedly been healed by the touch of this conmen posing as the genuine article have remained sick, others have died.

This Ghaniain preacher is a conman, not a man of God. Obiri Konjo Yeboah is also today's Knucklehead of the Day.

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Zimbabwe- A case of wishful thinking

From the BBC-

Zimbabwe's hyperinflation will force President Robert Mugabe from power, the US ambassador to the country has said.
Speaking to a UK newspaper, Christopher Dell predicted that inflation will leap to 1.5m% by the end of the year.

He said political discontent at Mr Mugabe's "disastrous economic policies" meant Zimbabwe was "committing regime change upon itself".

Zimbabwe has 80% unemployment and independent economists say inflation is running at 11,000% per year.

On Thursday, the value of the Zimbabwean dollar plummeted with black market exchange rates reaching 300,000 Zimbabwean dollars to one US dollar. The official rate is 15,000 to one.

No question, the economy of Zimbabwe is in a shambles. That doesn't necessarily mean internal change will happen. Look at the state of North Korea, particularly over the last 15 years. Some will say Kim is the worse despot of the two, besides the personality cult he has created but still conditions there are worse than in Zimbabwe. We'd all wish that internal regime would take place in Pyongyang and Hrare but what's the saying if wishes were horses?

Hat tip- Poliblog
Linked to- Bullwinkle, Cao, Pursuing Holiness,

From the Silly News Desk

Some news from South Africa. I heard of running in place on exercise equipment, but glued in place?

Hat tip- Dr. Taylor at Poliblog
Linked to- Jo, Pirate's Cove, Samantha Burns,

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (May 4) - A gang of armed robbers forced a man to strip naked and then glued him to his exercise bike and sealed his lips with more glue while they ransacked his house, according to a published report.

Kobus van Deventer, 50, was left stuck to the bike with super-strong glue for three hours until he was rescued by his girlfriend, the South African Press Association reported.

Van Deventer was carjacked Wednesday while driving in Johannesburg's northern suburbs, the association reported.

His assailants, dressed in suits and armed with handguns and an automatic assault rifle, forced their way into van Deventer's car and made the property developer drive to his house.

"The victim was then forced to strip, after which he was super-glued to the seat of an exercise bicycle, his hands were super-glued as were his feet and then his mouth was super-glued shut," Mark Stokoe, spokesman for emergency services Netcare 911, told SAPA. Workers from Netcare, a private company, provided aid at the scene.

South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world, with about 50 people being slain everyday. The government is desperate to counter the country's violent image, especially in the run up to the soccer World Cup it will host in 2010.

Trade Minister

Today's New York Times has a lengthy article on the Congo. Six months after holding elections, little has changed in the government. To be truthful, expecting miracles after forty plus years of fighting and civil war is a little unrealistic. Then this newspaper publishes fantasies all the time.

Here is one interesting or amusing tidbit.

In early March, when it came time to form the first truly democratic government in the country’s history, a political party connected to President Joseph Kabila submitted the name André Kasongo Ilunga for trade minister. The problem, government officials later acknowledged, was that there was no such man.

Naturally, when the government appointed Mr. Ilunga to the cabinet, he did not show up. The president’s advisers soon discovered that the name had been submitted as a ruse to ensure that another politician got the post.

“It was very embarrassing for all of us,” said Kikaya bin Karubi, a member of Parliament and a confidant of President Kabila.

LOL, maybe they could have submitted my name but I'd decline the job. Maybe the election just changed the faces of those who rule the Congo. As my wife(Who was in a 3rd world country) so often says, 'Same dog, different collar.'

Linked to-Bullwinkle, Right Wing Nation, StikNstein,

Got Milk?

Here is an interesting story from today's Sun-Sentinel. Mothers in South Florida who donate their breast milk to children in Africa. I don't have anything to add except to commend these Moms for their work for a good cause. It doesn't need saying that Africa is being ravaged by HIV and AIDS. Stopping that epidemic should be a bigger priority than it is.

Linked to- Bullwinkle, Overtaken by Events, Right Wint Nation,

After finally accepting that her son had a protein allergy that kept him from taking her breast milk, Ruth Weinberger faced another issue: What to do with the three months' supply in her freezer?

She knew that the vitamins and nutrients in breast milk boost a baby's immune system. So the Broward County mother began searching for a place to donate it.

In Europe and her native South Africa, human milk is banked to feed orphans and premature babies whose mothers may either be too sick or cannot produce milk to feed them. But clinics in South Florida wouldn't accept it.

"I was sad that he couldn't take it, but I would have been sadder if no one could take it,'' said Weinberger, 41, of Fort Lauderdale.

After weeks of online research, Weinberger found a pioneering group that ships the milk of American mothers to feed babies in Africa and reduce the risk of HIV infection in newborns.

The International Breast Milk Project, the brainchild of a Minnesota mom, has shipped roughly 10,000 ounces of milk to South Africa in the past year. It feeds infants whose mothers have HIV, which can be transmitted through breast milk, and those who live in areas where water is too dirty to mix with powdered formula.

Weinberger, who estimates she shipped about 1,000 ounces, is among about 100 mothers across the United States who have contributed. Another 500 have asked about donating. One Tampa mother has produced 1,000 ounces and continues stockpiling 10 ounces every day after feeding her daughter.

The group's founder, Jill Youse, 29, is discussing a plan to ship milk to an infant feeding center in Haiti.

Aaron Jackson, 25, of Hollywood, is working to set up the center through his nonprofit charity, Planting Peace. Jackson was recently profiled in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's project, AIDS Orphans, for the orphanages he has opened.

"I'd really like to get something going in Haiti because the need there is so great, and it's so close to the U.S., it makes it easier to ship milk,'' Youse said.

She started the project last summer, when she was producing more milk than her daughter could use.

As a former medical equipment saleswoman and the wife of a doctor, she knew the nutritional value of breast milk but couldn't find uses for the surplus, which can be kept frozen at home for months and even longer in subzero freezers.

Like Weinberger, she searched on the Internet and finally found a South African orphanage, iThemba Lethu in Durban, that had started a milk bank in 2001.

iThemba Lethu is one of hundreds of organizations across Africa that cares for the roughly 3 million children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. It was running a small milk bank with donations from South Africa, but not from the United States. After contacting the clinic, Youse donated 1,000 ounces of her milk and kept an online journal about the process. Other women read it and began contacting her.

She established the project and sent the second shipment, 3,000 ounces, in May. A third dispatch of 5,000 ounces followed late last year and the next, another 5,000 ounces, is scheduled to leave around Easter. A countdown clock for that event can be found on the group's Web site -- www.breastmilkproject.org.

There is no standard for how much milk a mother produces, and the amount a child drinks varies depending on age and diet. Typically, infants in their first few months consume between 20 and 30 ounces a day.

Mothers who want to donate are tested for diseases, and then given special containers to ship the milk on ice packs through express mail to California. There, it is pasteurized at Prolacta Bioscience, a life sciences company specializing in breast milk, before it is sent to Africa. Prolacta donates its services.

"They make it very easy to do--all the containers are sent to you, and you just freeze the ice packs they give you, and wait for the shipping man,'' said Que Lambert, 41, a Tampa mother of three who is producing the extra 10 ounces every day for the bank.

"There are a lot of mothers like me, I think, who have the extra milk and are really wondering what they can do with it,'' Lambert said. "But nobody seems aware of milk banking. Everyone I've talked to has been very surprised and interested that you can do some good like this."

Milk banking is not new. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, milk banks were established in Chicago and other cities as social workers grappled with massive poverty and malnutrition. If infants couldn't nurse from their mothers, alternatives for the poor were few, and cities had rising levels of infant mortality.

Today, there are few milk banks in the United States, and they are usually run by nonprofit midwife groups that save milk for premature babies and critically ill infants. The Miami Maternity Center operates one.

The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Transvaal Deputy Judge President Phineas Mojapelo. He gets the award for the following.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African sentenced to a month in jail for allowing his cellphone to ring noisily in a courtroom had the sentence overturned on appeal on Friday.

Keri Gwyn Lewis was convicted after his cellphone rang while he was sitting in the public gallery of the Johannesburg High Court and he answered it while leaving the room.

SAPA news agency said the irritated judge sent bailiffs after Lewis, who "was ordered into the witness stand, questioned about his conduct, convicted of contempt of court on the spot and sentenced to a month in jail."

The Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday voted unanimously to overturn the conviction, saying it violated Lewis's constitutional right to a fair trial with legal representation, SAPA said.

"A rebuke or some other indication of disapproval should in most cases be an adequate measure to discourage cellphone transgressions in court," the judgement said.

Note- I got the name of the judge from this article.

Sentencing a man to jail for a ringing cellphone is an outrageous abuse of judicial power and that makes Transvaal Deputy Judge President Phineas Mojapelo today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Linked to- Basil, Cao, Faultline, Jo, Mark my Words, Overtaken by Events, Perri Nelson, Pirate's Cove, StikNstein,

Taking a bite out of crime

Some news from Kenya. How unsophisticated this policeman was. He should have asked for a wire transfer to an account in the Cayman Islands like they do here in the USA.

Linked to- Dumb Ox, Jo's Cafe, Samantha Burns,

NAIROBI (Reuters) - A Kenyan traffic policeman was seen swallowing a bank note to avoid arrest after receiving a bribe in a sting operation by anti-corruption officials, a local television station reported on Friday.

Kenya Television Network (KTN) said anti-graft officials offered money to the policeman when he stopped their car at a police road block, handing over a bill dipped in a chemical.

In an amateur video broadcast by KTN, anti-graft officials were seen in a scuffle with the suspect as they tried to pin him down and retrieve the doctored bank note he had swallowed.

"It has poison. You will die my friend," a Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission official was heard saying on the video. "Why are you eating money that is laced with chemicals? Spit it out."

KTN said the KACC officials took the policeman to their offices where they took swabs from his mouth as evidence.

Most Kenyans view the country's traffic police as corrupt and accuse them of extorting money from privately owned minibuses, which Kenyans use as mass transit and are often dilapidated and widely blamed for the high rate of traffic fatalities.