A NIGERIAN POET
Prescribing poetry in Nigeria.
"Living in Nigeria is hell," says one of the characters in a new short story by Nigerian writer Tolu Ogunlesi. Ogunlesi likes to write poetry while he's in his pharmacy. But this 23-year-old, who also works as a pharmacist, thinks he's found a cure in writing. "It's a way of dealing with my sanity and insanity," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme in a series about new African writers. The living hell also provides a wonderful canvas for his writing. "Despite the seeming chaos of Nigerian society - it keeps you going. "It's exciting and shocking, and you can feel angry and happy. It's a blend you may not see in the West," he says. Ogunlesi, who began writing two years ago, says he also enjoys "linking normally unlinkable things" and allowing his imagination to consider things "the mind would not consider logical". In his story The Baby Who Didn't Stop Crying, a Nigerian policeman tries to pay for his bus fare to the consternation of conductor and passengers, used to seeing police officers insisting on travelling for free, if they are not demanding bribes. This policeman with a conscience introduces readers to a host of characters in the noise and lawlessness of over-crowded Lagos, Ogunlesi's favourite Nigerian city.
"I love the energy, wildness and madness of Lagos. I always need to come back to Lagos to recharge myself," he says. "In fact, I wrote a poem called Deficiency of Lagos, which says if you're away from the city for more than four months, you'll get sick." This year, Ogunlesi moved to Asaba, in Nigeria's southern Delta State to begin a year's national service in a government hospital after his graduation as a pharmacist. His career as a writer has also taken off. In his New Year poem, The Stream, Ogunlesi describes how his writing began as a trickle and has turned into a torrent of work. Following the publication of his first collection of poetry, he has performed his poems at festivals in Holland and Belgium and become a fellow on the British Council Crossing Borders Project. With such a tight schedule, when does he manage to put pen to paper? "Mostly when I should be working in my pharmacy - I find it easier to work when I ought I be doing something else, it flows better," he says. He's also found time to write a blog for the BBC's Africa 05 website. He admits to being an e-mail junkie and claims the internet is the key to his publishing successes so far. "When you find yourself pushed to the wall, the internet opens up a land that you never saw. It takes your work to an audience that is further and wider then you could imagine."
His insecurities about the future, described as "see-sickness" in The Stream, are balanced by "sea-seekness", an ambition to move into deeper waters of novel writing in the year ahead. Here, he feels, his nationality puts him on a firm footing. "Nigeria is classified by the powers-that-be as a third world country, but in our literary prowess, we inhabit a first class world. And that's no empty boast," he wrote. "I wouldn't exchange being a Nigerian for anything."
The Stream by Tolu Ogunlesi
This dying year has been an ever-widening corridor
where the stream of my life seems to have taken on
the Blueness of More Significant Waters
I want this stream never to end, stroll
on and on like raging Steam, roll
like a never-ceasing thread
And continue its widening like the porridge from the Boy's Magic Pot
whose mama forgot the StopSesame.
I want to forget too, my Stream's StopSesame.
May this flow never cease, neither its blueness
where poems and stories have ruffled the waters, and kissed the bait
of my mind, waiting patiently to be smoked on the fireplace rack
Where Self-Discovery is a shark, nibbling
At my old unsure self, and Fulfilment is the venom
that the teeth of the waves sink into me.
See-sickness afflicts me, and I strive
to peer down the barrel of the horizon, wondering,
what can I read from the lips of the New Year's shores?
Sea-seekness too afflicts, and I strive
to exchange this stream for the Sea, wondering,
on what key does it - the Sea - with its Fangs make Music.
BBC NEWS REPORT
Posted by: Mara at December 31, 2005 12:46 |
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africa
SCOTLAND
WEE SCOTLAND -
THE SCOTTISH POPULATION ACCOUNTS FOR APPROXIMATELY ONLY 9% OF THE POPULATION OF BRITAIN, WHILE LONDON ACCOUNTS FOR AROUND 12%
Posted by: Mara at December 30, 2005 01:39 |
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AFRICAN AGE CONCERN !!!
Age-cheating shocks Tanzania
Emmanuel Muga - BBC Sport, Dar es Salaam.
Bakari's case prompted Tanzania's disqualification from Gambia 2005. An investigation into the extent of age-cheating in Tanzanian football has come up with findings that have shocked officials of the country's federation. Crescentius Magori, the vice-president of the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF), has said the 'majority' of players in the national U-17 side, which was disqualified from this year's African Youth finals in Gambia, were over-age. The Confederation of African Football (Caf) disqualified Tanzania from the tournament in May after discovering that an over-age player, Nurdin Bakari, had been used in the qualifying rounds. After losing their subsequent appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), the TFF appointed a probe team to investigate the existence of age-cheating in the squad.
The committee's investigation included interviewing the players' parents, their school teachers, the coaches and the players themselves.The report was submitted to the TFF about two months ago and its contents are yet to be made public. Yet this week, Magori exclusively revealed to BBC Sport some of the report's findings. "We have received a very detailed report which gives a general picture that the majority of the players in the U-17 team were over-age," he said. "Some had played in the premier league for four years and we are shocked by these findings." "The committee found that there was no proper system of identifying and selecting players for the national junior sides.
"Coaches picked the players randomly from some teams without paying too much attention to their ages." Yet Magori believes that the report may prove to be a cloud with a silver lining. "It is good that we are now aware of this reality," he told BBC Sport. "We are going to be strict and we hope that after two years, we will be able to get the right players for different age-category competitions."
Posted by: Mara at December 30, 2005 01:31 |
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africa
SCOTLAND!
Wee Scotland -
SCOTLAND COVERS APPROXIMATELY HALF AS MUCH LAND MASS
AS ENGLAND, ABOUT 30,500 SQUARE MILES (79,000SQ km)
Wet Scotland -
However, roughly 80% of Britain's coastline is in Scotland.
CAN YOU ADAM AND EVE IT ?
Rains come but hunger, looting and ethnic cleansing continue on farms .
By Tererai Karimakwenda
27 December 2005
The rains that have pelted Zimbabwe for the last few days would normally have brought much joy to those growing food on the commercial farms and on little plots along the roadsides around the country, but for many this year, they have brought little benefit. Much of the land has not been tilled and shortages of fertilizer and seeds have limited agricultural activity. Farm evictions continue daily and acute signs of hunger are already visible on the faces of farm workers and their children. By the time harvest season arrives, millions more will be facing starvation and some, if not many, may have died already.
John Worsley Worswick of Justice for Agriculture gave us an update of the situation on the farms. He had just returned from a farming area south of the capital, where he talked with marginalized farm workers who are already showing signs of acute hunger. Worswick said the chefs taking over commercial farms are keeping some of the farm workers, but condemning them to virtual slavery. An entire family can sometimes work the whole day just for a cup of tea and slices of bread. Farm workers originally from neighboring countries are also being targeted, and many have no families back home to return to. They are also facing starvation now in the squatter camps they are forming.
Worswick told us there are roughly 200 commercial white farmers still on their properties trying to hold on. But there is a total breakdown of the rule of law, with the police and army being the major perpetrators of offences. Worswick had reports of evictions this week from Mashonaland West. Farmers were kicked off illegally in the Chegutu and Kadoma areas. Property was looted there as well and auctioned off to benefit the police. Court orders to return all stolen equipment and property are being ignored. Worswick agreed with a farming official who has called it ethnic cleansing.
Last week a group of policemen and soldiers were caught on camera by a British television news crew, looting civilian possessions at a farm as the owner looked on helplessly. The ITV news footage showed police and army officers stealing whatever they could handle from Peter Hennings' farm while he watched with his son Greg. Farmers in the area told us the equipment wound up at an auction which raised funds for the police. As for the Hennings, they immediately became homeless and are reported to have fled to South Africa to join the rest of their family. Additionally, hundreds of workers from the farm are now also without a home or a job.
This has been the plight of many Zimbabweans while Robert Mugabe continues to pay lip service to the rest of the world, publicly condemning the evictions and blaming them for the food shortages. But no arrests have been made and there has been no attempt to protect productive farms. In fact the most productive properties have been the recent targets.
AFRICA SWITCHES TO UNLEADED FUEL
Unleaded fuel causes less environmental damage.
Sub-Saharan Africa will meet a deadline to use only unleaded petrol by the end of 2005, the United Nations says. Lead additives in petrol, linked to disease and environmental damage, are being phased out worldwide. South Africa, the last sub-Saharan country to complete the changeover, is on track for the 31 December deadline. The change stems from a pledge made at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, when almost all Africa was still using leaded fuel.
Klaus Toepfer, the head of the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme (Unep), described the continent-wide changeover to unleaded fuel as "a real environmental and health achievement". "I pay tribute to all those governments, companies and others such as the World Bank who kept this promise," he said. Lead is associated with a wide range of health problems, including damage to the brains of babies and young children.
Leaded fuel has already been phased out in most developed countries, but is still in use in some North African and Asian countries. Earlier this month, the changeover in South Africa caused fuel shortages throughout southern Africa, as refineries shut down temporarily while they underwent the modifications needed to produce only unleaded fuel.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
NO AID FOR ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe axed from EU support.
Zimbabwe's poor human rights record and the deteriorating political situation have rendered the country ineligible for developmental aid from the European Union (EU), a top official has said.
Amadeu Altafaj, the spokesperson for Louis Michel, the commissioner in charge of development and humanitarian aid, said until the economic and political situation in Zimbabwe improves the 25-member bloc would not fund any development projects. Addressing journalists from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries who attended an EU conference on Combating Extreme Poverty and HIV/Aids, Alfataj said they would however continue funding humanitarian aid projects, administered through non-governmental organisations. Altafaj said: "We discuss developmental projects with governments. With the current political situation in Zimbabwe, we can't fund any of these projects." He said there were differences among EU member states on policies relating to the Zimbabwean situation. "Africa is lagging behind in the race to meet the Millennium Developmental Goals, hence the need to accelerate development in the health and education sector," Alfataj said.
Plans were also underway, Alfataj said, to improve road networks and telecommunications systems in order to build efficient regional markets.
Recently, the General Affairs and External Relations Council endorsed the EU Strategy for Africa hailed as a milestone in EU-Africa relations expected to boost Africa's sustainable development. Discussions have started on turning this strategy into concrete projects, to increase stability, boost economic growth and reduce poverty.
NEWS REPORT FROM ZIMBABWE STANDARD.
SOMALIA AFTER THE TSUNAMI.
Tsunami: Somalia's slow recovery.
Martin Plaut - BBC Africa editor.
Close to the tip of the Horn of Africa in Somalia, a community is starting to recover from the tsunami of a year ago. While the tsunami of 26 December 2005 did its worst damage in South-East Asia, the giant waves also travelled across the Indian Ocean to East Africa. Somalia, already one of the poorest and most war-torn countries of the region, was worst affected, with 289 people reported dead or missing.
The worst hit Somali community was on the peninsula of Hafun. This community depends on fishing for lobster, shark and kingfish for export. Some have small gardens in which they grow vegetables and cowpeas. When the tsunami struck it swept away boats, inundated plots and destroyed around 800 buildings. Across Somalia a total of 600 boats were lost, depriving whole communities of a means of earning their living. The first response came from the Western naval forces based in neighbouring Djibouti. A German frigate, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, was sent to Hafun, and used its helicopter to airlift in some immediately needed supplies.
The United Nations and other relief agencies followed. First food was delivered, and now longer terms needs are being addressed. A new town is under construction in Hafun - this time built 500 metres from the sea. A covered market has been constructed, and a centre where women can meet. Aid agencies have helped the fishing fleet get back in the water, with Action Aid so far providing around 40 boats. New roads have been built and more help is promised for next year. But Somalia has had no effective government since 1991, and until that can be rectified no amount of outside aid will really get its people back on their feet.
RAMBLINGS
FAMILIES ARE LIKE FUDGE .....
MOSTLY SWEET WITH A FEW NUTS
Murder of African alarms Russia.
This year has seen a sharp rise on attacks on foreigners in Russia.
A Russian youth movement allied to President Vladimir Putin is to demand action against racist violence after the murder of an African student.
A spokesman for Nashi (Our People) said it wanted public condemnation of rising racial intolerance in St Petersburg, Mr Putin's native city. A Cameroonian was stabbed to death and a Kenyan citizen wounded in attacks in the city on Saturday evening. Russian prosecutors say they suspect both crimes were racially motivated.
The Cameroonian, identified as Kanhem Leon, was attacked by a group of five or six youths dressed in dark clothing and black hats, a spokeswoman for the St Petersburg prosecutor said. A Namibian student with the victim managed to escape from the scene, said Yelena Ordynskaya. The Kenyan was attacked 300 metres away at around the same time. A spokesman for Africans in the city, named as Desire Defoe, was quoted by Russian media as saying that foreign students in St Petersburg planned to hold a protest shortly. Nashi said they wanted to raise xenophobic attacks with the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, a recently created advisory body. "We demand that the St Petersburg authorities stop the outrages in the city," said Nashi press secretary Ivan Mostovich.
The head of Russia's Students' Union, Nikita Chaplin, has called on President Putin and the government to oversee the investigation into Saturday's attacks personally. "It is unlikely that local authorities have the ability to investigate them," he told a Moscow radio station. According to figures from the Moscow Bureau of Human Rights, there were three times as many fatal racial attacks in Russia in the first six months of 2005, compared with the whole of 2004.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Posted by: Mara at December 27, 2005 05:59 |
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africa
SOUTH AFRICAN ROAD CARNAGE,
SA's deadly Christmas tradition.
Justin Pearce - BBC News website, Johannesburg.
Road carnage. The South African term says it all, and has become a grim national institution.
Typical holiday reading in South Africa. As the country shuts down for the Christmas season, traffic accidents are one topic that is guaranteed to fill the space in the newspapers. Lerato, who works in Johannesburg, said she was worried about accidents when she set off by car to spend the holidays with her family in Limpopo province in the north. "But I don't think I have a choice," she said. "Buses are inconvenient because they drop you off far away, and they are packed with people going home. And if you try to take a minibus taxi, there's still a high risk of accidents, and you will queue at the taxi rank for at least four hours."
Starting on the Reconciliation Day public holiday on 16 December, people pour out of Johannesburg and the other cities of the interior. Some are heading to the beach, others to families in rural areas. Road journeys of 1,000 km (600 miles) and more are not uncommon. In the first three weeks of December, at least 560 people lost their lives in road accidents. A government spokesman welcomed the fact that this was better than the 726 deaths over the equivalent period last year.
Recent accidents
16 Dec: 5 killed in bus and cars, Mpumalanga
16 Dec: 3 killed in minibus taxi, North West
16 Dec: 2 injured in minibus taxi, KwaZulu-Natal
17 Dec: 21 killed in bus, Free State
17 Dec: 5 killed in minibus taxi, Free State
18 Dec: 9 killed in minibus taxi, W Cape
Total killed since 1 Dec: 560
In the biggest single incident so far this season, 21 bus passengers lost their lives in an accident near Wepener in Free State province. The same weekend, six minibus passengers were killed in a head-on collision with a truck near Beaufort West in the Western Cape. Thabo Tsoletsane of the government's Road Traffic Management Corporation points out that accidents are a year-round phenomenon, though the volume of traffic on the roads is highest around the Christmas and Easter holiday periods. "Some people aren't used to driving long distances - they don't know they must take breaks, they suffer from fatigue and they have accidents. "The legacy of apartheid is that some people own vehicles that are old, and they can't afford the spares."
New legislation that is to go before parliament early next year will allow drivers' licences to be suspended for speeding - at present, licences can be suspended only for drunken driving offences. Minibus taxis are often badly maintained But Mr Tsoletsane believes that laws alone cannot be effective without the co-operation of magistrates and other officers of the law: "The justice system is overloaded and doesn't take traffic issues seriously."
Mr Tosletsane recognises that there are not enough traffic officers on the roads, and says the government is trying to tackle corruption among police and vehicle safety inspectors. "Badly maintained taxis shouldn't be on the road. Taxis have to be tested yearly - but owners just pay for the certificates to get back on the road."
South African traffic officers have a habit of setting up speed cameras and then hiding behind bushes or under bridges - a tactic that brings in money in fines for the local authorities, but does little to prevent people from speeding in the first place.
"There is pressure on them to generate funds - they need to be more visible," says Johan Jonck, who voluntarily established the website for the government's Arrive Alive road safety campaign. As a child, Mr Jonck lost his mother in a road accident - more recently he became involved in road safety after another accident, which cost the life of one of the players in a rugby team he manages. "One of the biggest problems is attitudes," he says, arguing that the government needs to be more vigorous about enforcing the law. "Most accidents are the result of alcohol - also not wearing a seatbelt or driving without licences. Speeding is only a small part of it."
The Arrive Alive campaign has been around for more than a decade, publishing accident statistics on roadside billboards and advertising on radio, TV and in the press. But its success is questionable. Fatal road accident statistics show a steady rise since 1997, after falling in the mid-1990s. One of Arrive Alive's radio ads, highlighting drunken driving, won a prize in this year's Loerie Awards - the South African advertising industry's annual honours.
But advertising can only do so much. Andrew Human, managing director of the Loerie Awards, was reluctant to comment on the effectiveness of the Arrive Alive campaign, but suggested that accident prevention requires more than adverts. "As an individual, I believe that if we had the kind of fines where people went to jail or had their cars confiscated, we'd have fewer accidents in this country."
BLACK GOLD IN SAO TOME
Oil boom to wake sleepy Sao Tome
By Zoe Eisenstein - BBC News, Sao Tome.
Downtown Sao Tome must surely be one of the sleepiest capital cities in Africa, if not the world. At 8 o'clock in the morning it is dead quiet. There is just the odd person cycling past and a few women waiting in the morning heat in the hope of selling their pineapples and bananas. Amid the tranquillity and undeniable charm of this small nation archipelago, most of Sao Tome and Principe's 169,000 inhabitants are unemployed and live in dire poverty, relying on subsistence farming and fishing for their survival. But the country's fortunes could soon be awoken by a promised oil boom, following a deal between Sao Tome and Nigeria to explore a jointly owned maritime area in the Gulf of Guinea, off the coast of West Africa.
President Fradique de Menezes told me he is confident that his country will strike black gold, enabling it to move from a traditionally cocoa-based economy to one based on crude production. But he said it was too early to know if the sea's reserves of oil were as plentiful as its reserves of fish.
"Of course it's logical that these islands have also oil because we are in the middle of the places where there is oil: Angola in the south, Nigeria north, Gabon, Cameroon, even Congo Brazzaville has oil, and Equatorial Guinea our neighbour. "So it is also logical that we have some. But what quantity is another question."
The first hole has yet to be drilled and the first drop of oil yet to be discovered, but there have already been allegations of corruption and irregularities in the awarding of the blocks in the Joint Development Zone. Sao Tome and Principe is the newest nation to join the Gulf of Guinea oil-producing countries.
It is determined not to go down the same road as some of its neighbours, where corruption and mismanagement of oil revenues are said to be responsible for a lack of development. "When we see all the oil-producing countries around Sao Tome we cannot understand how they can produce so much oil, have so much wealth, and live in such poverty," says Afonso Valera, legal director for the National Agency for Petroleum in Sao Tome.
"But I think Sao Tome is trying to do something different, to share this wealth among all the people and to build something that can benefit the entire people."
For all the talk, people at Sao Tome's central market, where an abundance of tropical fruit and vegetables is on sale, do not seem to think that oil will answer their problems. "Yes, I've heard that Sao Tome has oil and that this country could have a good development. But I don't believe it," one female shopper says "What I've seen so far is that the rich get richer and those who don't have money just stay poor." Another shopper says he's not going to wait for empty promises. "For so many years people have talked about the petrol but it has never happened. That's why I don't believe in it, I just have to believe in myself."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
IMF backs poverty debt write-off!
Nineteen nations stand to benefit from debt relief early next year.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to write off the $3.3bn (£1.89bn) owed to it by all but one of the 20 poorest countries in the world.
It has delayed granting debt relief to Mauritania until it makes "satisfactory progress in a few policy areas".
The write-off follows the Group of Eight debt forgiveness deal which was struck in July. Earlier this month it was feared the IMF was set to withhold help for up to six of the poorest countries. Debt-relief campaigners ended up warning some intended recipients that the IMF was set to drop them from the list because their macroeconomic policies did not meet its requirements. On Wednesday, the IMF dismissed reports that it had been back-tracking as "simply not true". The multilateral debt relief initiative was agreed by leaders of the G8 industrialised states in July after the series of "Live 8" rock concerts drew attention to the issue.
The debts owed by the 19 nations will finally be cancelled once the IMF has the approval of all 43 rich countries that have contributed to an anti-poverty trust set up by the Fund. "So far we have 37 consents. We're quite hopeful we'll get remaining the six in the next few weeks," said IMF spokesman Thomas Dawson said.
COUNTRIES APPROVED FOR DEBT WRITE-OFF
Benin
Bolivia
Burkina Faso
Cambodia
Ethiopia
Ghana
Guyana
Honduras
Madagascar
Mali
Mozambique
Nicaragua
Niger
Rwanda
Senegal
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Uganda
Zambia
They should receive IMF debt relief by early 2006. Mauritania, meanwhile, is likely to meet the criteria for the write-off "relatively soon", said Mr Dawson.
"Mauritania will qualify for relief and receive it once it demonstrates satisfactory progress on some policy areas that have been identified," he said. Oxfam, one of the organisations that feared the IMF would go back on its word, welcomed Wednesday's board verdict. "It's good that the IMF realised that they couldn't wriggle out of promised debt cancellation during a closed-door session in Washington DC," a spokesman said. "The IMF must now deliver the funding quickly and without any further delay."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Posted by: Mara at December 22, 2005 20:13 |
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africa
DEATHS FROM HUNGER IN KENYA.
Hunger leads to deaths in Kenya.
Droughts in this barren region have often led to conflicts. At least 10 people have died of hunger in northern Kenya, Dr Boniface Musila a health official in Mandera says. More than 30% of people's livestock in the area have died due to the drought, Mandera's district commissioner said.
These reports come two days after UN agencies warned that 2.5 million Kenyans could face famine next year unless food aid pleas are met. The drought in the area along the border with Somalia has led to competition for land and water. This has led to frequent clashes in Kenya and Somalia with conflicts between pastoralists and farmers.
Mandera District Commissioner Kimani Waweru told Kenya's media that lack of rain had caused the situation to deteriorate badly. "We have moved from a situation of drought to one of famine. The situation is not just bad, it is very, very bad," he said. Mohammed Molole, 80, told the East African Standard that the last of his 289 head of cattle died at the weekend. "I have walked all over the plains and there is nothing at all to give the cattle," he said. The newspaper says that there are fears that more deaths could have gone unreported because residents would usually bury their dead within 24 hours.
The World Food Programme is appealing for $127 million for emergency operations in the drought-affected areas while the UN children's fund, Unicef, says it needs $4 million to save more than 20,000 children hit by famine in northern Kenya. The government also says more than 100,000 people are faced with food shortages on the east coast due to a prolonged drought.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
ZIMBABWE CRICKETERS TO STRIKE
Zimbabwe players decide to strike.
Zimbabwe's cricketers have voted for strike action and will boycott next month's Afro-Asia Cup in Bangladesh. Members of the Zimbabwe Professional Cricketers' Association are taking action as part of an ongoing dispute with their national governing body. "We made a 100% decision not to go," said ZPCA chairman Blessing Mahwire.
The event, which begins on 16 January, was due to feature A teams from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
"We will still play club and provincial cricket in Zimbabwe, but we are giving the Bangladeshis as much notice as possible so they can invite another country "We are aware of the impact we will make, but we have been forced into it," said Mahwire, a seam bowler with 10 Test caps and seven one-day international appearances to his credit.
The boycott, which is the result of a protracted contracts dispute, also affects plans to send an under-23 side to take part in a domestic tournament in South Africa. An ICC spokesman told BBC Sport: "We are aware of this development and will continue to monitor further developments in Zimbabwe Cricket." The dispute began when Tatenda Taibu resigned as Zimbabwe captain and announced his retirement from international cricket in protest at the way the game is being run.
Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Peter Chingoka and managing director Ozias Bvute were subsequently questioned by police as part of a fraud investigation. Police also interviewed players Vusi Sibanda and Waddington Mwayenga about alleged breaches of the country's foreign exchange laws. The International Cricket Council has hinted at action, including possible suspension of Zimbabwe's Test status, if "the integrity of the international game" is put at risk.
A statement from the ZPCA said strike action was being taken "in the light of the persistent and continued failure by both the chairman and the managing director of Zimbabwe Cricket to address the legitimate concerns of their players". Players' representative Clive Field said the Sports and Recreation Commission had not responded to a request for four nominated administrators to be given temporary charge of running the game.
"The SRC passed the matter over to the minister responsible for sport, Aenos Chigwedere, and he has not responded either. The players have simply had enough," he added.
BBC SPORTS NEWS
Posted by: Mara at December 22, 2005 19:12 |
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africa
TIGERS TO BE BRED IN ZIMBABWE!!! - NOW I HAVE HEARD IT ALL.
Zimbabwe and China in tiger deal.
Zimbabwe is about to import four endangered Siberian tigers from China for captive breeding, officials say. Zimbabwe Tourism Minister Francis Nhema told the Herald newspaper China had received zebras, elephants and impala as part of an "exchange programme".
Correspondents say the move shows President Mugabe is wooing China. He is trying to strengthen ties with the Asian giant as his country is increasingly isolated in the world because of a poor human rights record. "We do not have the tiger in this country and we would like to benefit from the exchange programme with China," Mr Nhema was quoted by the state-controlled Herald as saying. "We are happy that three experts found out animal habitats friendly to the requirements that are compulsory for tiger breeding and we expect the animals would be here as soon as possible."
The tigers are intended for captive breeding in the Hwange National Park, 500km (320 miles) west of the capital Harare. A biologist working for the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo, Peter Mundy, told AP news agency the plan was "a complete load of garbage", adding that the country even lacked the resources to look after its own wildlife. "It would be cruel," Mr Mundy said, adding that the park's seasons, climate and vegetation were not suitable for those animals, whose native region is seasonally covered in snow.
But Dick Pitman, head of a conservationist organisation, the Zambezi Society, said he approved of the plan provided it was run by tiger experts with adequate foreign funding, and the animals were not allowed to leave the park.
NIGERIAN FOOTBALLER'S NEW CONTRACT.
Martins stays at Inter.
Nigeria striker Obafemi Martins has signed a new deal with Inter Milan that will keep him at the club until 2010. The 21-year-old, who has scored 23 goals since his Serie A debut in 2002, would have been out of contract at the end of this season. Martins' new deal with Inter is reportedly giving him US$2.99 million per year.
Posted by: Mara at December 21, 2005 04:52 |
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africa
CHRISTMAS IS CANCELLED IN ZIMBABWE
Profits cut for Zimbabwe hairdressers.
By Steve Vickers - BBC, Harare.
Christmas is usually the busiest time of the year for salons.
A joke doing the rounds in Zimbabwe is that Christmas has been cancelled this year due to economic constraints.
That may not be the case exactly, but most people are feeling the pinch, and many women are having to cut back on their hairdressing budget and opt for long-lasting hairstyles. So while it used to be fancy sets like spirals and bobs, it's now fishtail, carrot, and other types of plaiting. Weaves are also in, as are dreadlocks, wigs and short hair. "When you get to the festive season, this is normally the busiest time, when there are parties and everyone is bubbly and excited," says Jackie Granger, one of Harare's leading hairstylists.
You have to adjust to your pocket - I'd like to change my hairstyle once a month, but I just can't do that said a Salon customer. "But this year there's been a downward trend. People don't seem to be spending as much as they used to spend, particularly when it comes to hair, people would rather look for food or keep money for school fees rather than having their hair done. So the majority of fashion-conscious Zimbabwean women have had to compromise with their hair, though they're not finding it easy. Shaving your head is easier to manage and cheaper, says Vimbai "My hairstyle is very very short and I have a tint - it's called copper," explains one salon customer. "I used to have long hair with weaves."
Another says: "It's difficult but you have to adjust to your pocket. It's just beyond my means to have the trendy hairstyles. I'd like to change my hairstyle once a month, but I just can't do that." You could even go for the ultimate in low maintenance hair - the completely bald look. It's becoming increasingly popular," said one shaven-headed lady called Vimbai. "I find myself more of a natural woman when I carry this hairstyle - It's very easy to manage."
"And the other advantage of being bald is it's very versatile. I can change it to suit the occasion - if I get invited to a dinner I can just put on my wig and go."
Zimbabwe's year-on-year inflation is now running at 502%. But official figures for prices at hair salons show a rise of 2100%, the highest rate of all categories monitored. In other words, on average, a hairstyle costs 20 times more than it did a year ago. "With hairdressing they say it's a luxury business so when they bring in the products, there's a 60 or 65% duty on that," Jackie Granger says. "When you look at it sometimes you wonder if it's worth being in business because we are being out-priced."
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RAMBLINGS.
IF YOU DONT RISK ANYTHING,
YOU RISK EVEN MORE !
EAST AFRICA'S FIRST ICE RINK
For many Kenyans, skating on ice is a new experience.Kenyans have been nervously skating on ice - many for the first time - after the launch of East Africa's first ice skating facility. The Solar Ice Rink at a Nairobi hotel, can accommodate 200 skaters and measures 15,000 square feet. Owners hope the rink will be a big draw for tourists across the region. "We have a lot of first-timers - some young children, but most have picked it up really quickly," said an instructor at the rink. "We have been having a good turn-out of people here," said Muasya Musau from the Panari Hotel in Nairobi. "A lot of people are afraid to let go of the guard rail, but when they do, they pick it up really fast."
"It is my first time trying to skate on ice. It feels incredible," Adam Ali, a new skater on the rink, told the BBC's Michael Kaloki in Nairobi. "I think Kenyans will accept ice skating and I think many more similar places should open so that people can have choices. "I love it, this is really cool, "said Oshe Muda, another skater at the rink. "I have skated before in Europe so I am a bit used to it," he said. Another new skater, Lisa Wachera, said: "I think this will be a good thing for Kenyans. It will be a new experience for them, falling down on the ice. There is a first time for everything."
However, many Kenyans may not be able to afford the hourly skating fees of 800 Kenyan shillings ($12) for adults and Ksh 500 for children.
Tourism and Wildlife Minister Morris Dzoro told reporters at the launch on Friday that there were only two other countries with such facilities in Africa - Egypt and South Africa. "This is the largest single facility of its kind on the continent and can be ranked at the same level with those in Europe.
"I'm glad we have realised the Kenyan dream of being the first to offer ice skating as a sport in East and Central Africa." But a businessman in the city expressed doubts about the cost and suitability of the venture.
"I don't know whether this is necessary for Nairobi. I think there are other priorities," he said.
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