CONGO;S CABLE REVAMP WORLD RECORD !
Much of DR Congo's mineral reserves are yet to be exploited. The world's longest power cables in the Democratic Republic of Congo are to be repaired after decades of disrepair. A $178m World Bank loan will help national electricity company Snel to increase power for the mining sector. The 1,700km network runs from the Inga dam at the mouth of the Congo River to the southern Katanga region.
DR Congo has massive potential for hydro-electric power, yet correspondents say only 6% of Congolese have access to electricity. Last year's elections marked the official end of a five-year civil war in which some 3m people died and DR Congo's neighbours became embroiled. Much of the fighting was fuelled by the country's vast mineral wealth, with all sides taking advantage of the anarchy to plunder natural resources.
The mineral reserves include gold, diamonds, 10% of the world's copper and more than a third of cobalt, used in mobile phones. The World Bank's Sam O'Brian Kume says the project is intended to allow the mining sector to fully benefit from the Inga dam's 500 megawatt capacity.
"It will not only reinforce transmission to DR Congo's industrial heartland, but lines will also be extended to the border with Zambia to fully integrate the power system of DRC into that of the southern Africa power market," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
The BBC's Arnaud Zajtman in the capital, Kinshasa, says communities living by the Inga dam use charcoal for their fuel. The cable refurbishment is expected to take four years and Mr O'Brian Kume says it will benefit ordinary people in time. "The mining companies through their expansion will create job opportunities for people which will encourage other commercial activities and export revenues and taxes to the government," he said.
Our correspondent says since the end of the war, many mining deals have been signed, but the industry needs a reliable electricity supply to flourish. In most of the deals, the state mining company gets between 15% to 20% of the profit and foreign investors take the rest. It is envisaged that the loan will be repaid over time by Snel's commercial activities.
There is a proposal to expand the Inga dam - known as the Grand Inga project - which would have the capacity to supply electricity for the whole continent.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
" SAYINGS "
"HE WHO SEES A NEED AND WAITS TO BE ASKED FOR HELP,
IS AS UNKIND AS IF HE HAD REFUSED IT" !
TEAR GAS AT KENYA MP PAY PROTESTS !
The protesters say they will campaign against MPs who back the pay-off. Kenyan police have fired tear gas to disperse a protest against a planned huge pay-off for MPs. Four organisers of the protest march were arrested and may be charged with incitement to violence.
The MPs are to vote for a government proposal to give them a $20m bonus before a new parliament is elected later this year. "Our point is there are more deserving cases in this country," said Wanyiri Kihoro, a former MP at the protest.
Last year parliament increased President Mwai Kibaki's salary by two-thirds, drawing criticism from Kenyans, many of whom live on less than $1 a day. Mr Kibaki came to power in 2002 promising to end decades of corruption and improve the living standards of Kenyans.
Police dispersed dozens of protesters, who included civil society groups, ordinary Kenyans and former MPs, just yards from parliament where they had planned to camp for the afternoon.
Mwalimu Mati, who heads the Mass anti-corruption lobby group, said they hoped to convince the MPs to reject the bill. "Those who vote for the bill should expect the civil society to campaign against them during the general elections later in the year," said Mr Mati, who was among those arrested.
The MPs are to get a 12.5% increase in their pay and allowances, backdated to January 2003. Kenyans go for elections in December and President Kibaki will be seeking a second term in office. Over the past four years, Mr Kibaki's administration has been hit by a multi-million dollar corruption scandal which has damaged the president's credibility with Western donors.
Some donors have estimated that up to $1bn had been lost to graft between 2002 and 2005.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
ZIMBABWE LAUNCHES $200,000 NOTE !
Food shortages have become common in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is to start circulating a new 200,000 Zimbabwe dollar note, in a bid to tackle the country's inflation, the highest in the world. The new note, issued by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe from Wednesday, can buy 1kg (2.2lb) of sugar.
Food and fuel shortages have become common as the government relies more heavily on imports, pushing prices to new heights. The official annual rate of inflation in Zimbabwe is nearing 5,000%. In practice, this means the price of a loaf of bread costs 50 times more in cash than it did a year ago.
The new note is worth US$13 at the official exchange rate or $1 on the black market. Zimbabwe's government has created a commission to find a way to control soaring living costs. But correspondents say that as long as Zimbabwe has a shortage of staple foods, including maize, food shortages are likely to continue.
Critics have blamed President Robert Mugabe's policies, especially the seizure of white-owned farms, for ordinary Zimbabweans' hardship. For his part, President Mugabe has accused foreign governments of trying to interfere in Zimbabwe's affairs.
The new banknote comes after International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts that by the end of 2007, prices will be 1,000 times higher than they were a year earlier, Reuters news agency reports.
"Price controls that are being enforced are likely to exacerbate shortages and ultimately fuel further inflation," said Bio Tchane, director of the IMF's Africa department, who described Zimbabwe's prospects as "bleak".
BBC NEWS REPORT.
SHOCK AT SEX CRIMES IN DR CONGO !
Many rapes go unreported in DR Congo. A UN human rights expert has said she is shocked at the scale and brutality of sexual violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Yakin Erturk said the situation in South Kivu province was the worst she had seen in four years as special UN investigator on violence against women. She said women had been tortured, forced to eat human flesh and men had been forced to rape relatives. She said rebels, soldiers and police were responsible.
Last year's UN-supervised elections were supposed to end years of conflict in DR Congo but violence continues, especially in the east. Over the weekend, Humanitarian Affairs Minister Jean Claude Muyambu said that some six million people had fled their homes because of the fighting.
"The atrocities perpetrated by these armed groups are of an unimaginable brutality that goes far beyond rape," she said in a statement after visiting the region. "Women are brutally gang raped, often in front of their families and communities."
Ms Erturk said some 4,500 cases of rape had been reported in South Kivu this year - with many more cases believed to have gone unreported. "Most victims live in inaccessible areas [and] are afraid to report or did not survive the violence," she said. She called on the international community to do more to protect Congolese women - there are some 16,000 UN peacekeepers in the country. She also said no action had been taken against security forces who had raped civilians.
"There seems to be a pattern of using rape as a planned reprisal to punish communities suspected of supporting opposition groups," she told the BBC's Network Africa programme. She also warned that sexual violence was becoming common outside areas of conflict. "Violence against women seems to be perceived by large sectors of society to be normal."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
NIGERIAN GUNMEN SEIZE PAKISTANI !
Delta militants have carried out a series of attacks and abductions. Unknown gunmen in speedboats have kidnapped a Pakistani construction worker in Nigeria's oil region. Seven men dressed in red seized the man, named as Tahri, in Bodo city in Ogoniland, security sources say.
The man works for Italian firm Gitto. Such kidnappings are common in the region and most hostages are released unharmed after a ransom is paid. More than 150 foreigners - mostly oil workers - and many Nigerians have been kidnapped in the region this year.
The Nigerian authorities and the oil companies concerned always deny paying any ransom.
Despite being Africa's top oil producer and the sixth largest exporter crude to the US, the Niger Delta remains heavily impoverished. Attacks on oil installations have cut Nigeria's daily oil production by about 25%, helping to drive up world oil prices.
Militants say that local people should benefit more from the region's oil wealth but many kidnappings are carried out by criminal gangs.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
FLOODS, FIRES RAVAGE SOUTH AFRICA !
Flooding in Cape Town has displaced some 38,000 people, mostly from squatter camps around the South African city, a local official says. Food and blankets are being distributed to those affected, who are being housed in municipal buildings.
On the other side of the country, in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, bushfires have killed at least 19 people and destroyed over 30,000 acres of land.
Fires have also killed two people in neighbouring Swaziland, police say.
"We still do not know the actual cause of the fire but we suspect it might be due to the very dry weather conditions in the affected areas," said Mtholephi Mthimkhulu from KZN's agriculture and environmental affairs department.
The fires in KwaZulu-Natal are now reported to be under control. More rains are forecast for later in the week around Cape Town. The city's disaster management spokesman Johan Minnie said it was the highest number of people hit by flooding in five years.
"We are stretched, especially in terms of supplying disaster relief. We are at capacity at the moment," he said, according to Reuters news agency. The department says there is one benefit from all the rain - a new dam in the Western Cape is now filling up.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
RAMBLINGS !
"THE EMPTY VESSEL MAKES THE LARGEST SOUND"
LETTER FROM THE DIASPORA
Friday 27th July 2007
Dear Friends,
Someone who knows I come from Zimbabwe said to me just yesterday, 'I don't know if it's my imagination but I think there's increased coverage of the situation in Zimbabwe over the last few weeks'. He was referring to the UK media, of course, and - as if to prove his point - the BBC's flagship news programme Newsnight covered the opening of parliament in Harare this week with a commentary to the effect that while Robert Mugabe rode in a Rolls Royce with all the pomp and ceremony befitting a Head of State, albeit a failed state, the Zimbabwean people were suffering shortages of even the most basic means of survival. That report was on Tuesday the 24th July 2007. The same story was covered in The Times and The Telegraph but, that apart, there has been a steady drip of news coming out for the last couple of weeks. Papers like The Guardian and The Independent, not noted for their coverage of Zimbabwe, have both carried stories about Zimbabwe and the steadily deteriorating situation in the country.
For three or four weeks now the media in this country has been concerned with the floods; the heaviest rains since records began with major rivers breaking their banks and thousands of people flooded out of their homes, without fresh drinking water or power. It was major news so it was quite a surprise that any other story should make it into the headlines but last night it was ITV who turned the spotlight on Zimbabwe in their 10.30 News broadcast that is watched by millions. Using a hidden camera ITV showed horrific pictures of the men and women beaten by the police for taking part in NCA demos up and down the country. We saw the demonstrators running, literally running down what looked like Samora Machel Avenue only to be set upon minutes later by the police and hauled away. The film then moved to the private clinics where the people were being treated. There were dozens of them and we saw them lying on the floor, too exhausted even to stand, while they waited to be treated for broken limbs, bruises and lacerations. There were men and women of all ages, ordinary people, many of them deeply traumatized by the experience. Their faces told the story, their eyes wide with shock at what had been done to them by brutal men with baton sticks, fists and heavy black boots.
I read today that the mothers were ordered to leave their babies at one end of the room at the police station while they lay face down on the floor and the police took it in turns to beat them and even to walk all over them while they lay there. For five hours it went on and the children wailed and screamed in terror as they saw their mothers being beaten and trampled on by men in uniform, men who are themselves husbands, brothers, fathers and uncles. And what was the reason for this savage brutality? These brave and wonderful ordinary Zimbabweans, armed with nothing more that their banners, had dared to demonstrate for a new constitution. They demonstrated not just in Harare but up and down the country they took to the streets in their hundreds to demonstrate the will of the people, zvido zvevanhu.
Watching the ITV coverage, I felt a deep sense of shame, a) that I was not there with my brothers and sisters sharing their pain and b) that I had ever doubted the courage of the ordinary people to bring about change in Zimbabwe. Time and time again it is the ordinary men and women of Woza and the NCA who have risked life and limb for what they believe in only to be beaten back by a ruthless regime armed with all the crushing apparatus of the state machine. But a machine needs men to operate it and it is those same men who are prepared to beat, torture and even kill their own people in order to keep Robert Mugabe in power. How do they sleep at night? How do they go home at the end of the day and look into the eyes of their own innocent children and answer the question Maswera sei baba? How was your day, Daddy?
Political analysts and learned academics may drone on and on, week after week, about the causes for all this mayhem; they may give us learned analyses of the political ramifications of this or that policy but the truth is that until they too find the courage to get out on the streets with the people this nightmare of repression and brutality in Zimbabwe will never end. We all know that the end will not come because of Thabo Mbeki's intervention; it will not come because of SADC's mealy-mouthed platitudes or the West's passive outrage or the AU's continuing inaction. The end will come when the people of Zimbabwe stand together, united in courage and determination to tell the dictator what sort of future they want for their children. Last night the British people saw that courage demonstrated by the brave men and women of the NCA. Of course, in Zimbabwe, the likes of Tafataona Mahosa and ZTV will ensure that ordinary Zimbabweans don't see the same footage but you can be very sure, the world is watching.
Ndini shamwari yenyu. PH
Cathy Buckle's Weekly Letter from Zimbabwe !
Clear as mud.
Saturday 28th July 2007
Dear Family and Friends,
There is a different feeling in the air this week - the stirring of dusty leaves on thirsty trees, a clearer colour to the sky and the calls of birds not heard for the last few months. The changing season at least brings a feeling of hope and a tantalizing promise of sanity to a time of utter madness which many people are saying may well be the final straw for them. In the fourth week of government ordered price-cuts, it would be absurd to list the things we cannot get because they are now too numerous and include most foodstuffs and basic toiletries.
Almost everyone is living entirely off their pantries and gardens, on food parcels sent from people outside the country or simply going without the bare essentials required for every day nutrition and existence.
It has become almost impossible to keep up with the changing statements coming from the government and things are as a clear as mud. It makes you dizzy trying to follow the announcements: close, open, banned, unbanned, allowed, forbidden, can import, can't import. The rules, lists and regulations have reached ludicrous proportions and, as it was with the farms, there does not seem to be a master plan at all except perhaps the desire of the government to control, absolutely and completely, every facet of life in Zimbabwe.
Shops, supermarkets and businesses that we all thought would close down have not done so because of the government threat to take over companies that folded. Shop workers know their jobs are hanging by a thread and they have the look of fear and resignation in their eyes. It is the same look that invaded farmers, evicted farm workers and then independent journalists had in their eyes as their lives and livelihoods collapsed. It is the same look that we saw on the faces of people whose homes were bulldozed by government two winters ago.
As each of the last seven winters have come to an end and the promise of warmth and renewal has returned, it has been hard to believe that season after season has been squandered and food supplies have got less and less. Politics, farming and food supplies is where this all began and must surely be where it will all end too.
Until next week, thanks for reading,
love cathy.
TRIALS START ON NEW TB VACCINE !
TB is fighting back against current drugs. The first new TB vaccine for 80 years is being tested in clinical trials in South Africa. Oxford University researchers say that the jab, given alongside the current BCG vaccine, could protect people better from the disease. TB kills more than two million people worldwide a year, and drug resistant forms are becoming more common.
Charity TB Alert said an effective, cheap and long-lasting vaccine could justify widespread use in the UK.
The Health Protection Agency recorded more than 8,500 cases in 2005, but the BCG vaccine, which used to be given to all schoolchildren in the UK, is currently targeted only at communities with high rates of the infection, such as immigrant groups and the homeless.
The new vaccine has already passed safety trials in the Gambia, and the latest tests in the Western Cape area of South Africa, where one in 100 infants has the illness, will reveal if the extra jab works better than BCG alone.
Dr Helen McShane, the Oxford University and Wellcome Trust researcher leading the project, said: "This vaccine is safe, and stimulates very high levels of the type of immune response we think we need to protect against TB. "It is important for us to test whether or not this vaccine does work to stop people getting TB."
The results of the Gambian trials suggest that the vaccine is having a big impact on how the body's immune system is primed to resist TB infection. It works by stimulating immune system cells called T-cells to produce a stronger response to the BCG jab. TB Alert, a charity which campaigns for wider awareness of the global cost of TB, said that a new tool in the fight against the disease would be a "great step forward".
A spokesman said: "The TB bacterium has for too long managed to stay a step ahead of human efforts, as shown by the appearance, especially in HIV positive populations in southern Africa, of a strain of tuberculosis resistant to virtually all known drugs."
She added that if the vaccine proved to be safe, cheap and far more effective than BCG, with its effects lasting throughout life, then the reintroduction of universal immunisation in the UK "might be worthwhile".
BBC NEWS REPORT.
BRITISH GIRLS DENY DRUG CHARGES !
If found guilty, the girls could get 10 years in jail. Two British teenagers accused of trying to smuggle cocaine into the UK from Ghana have pleaded not guilty, Fair Trials Abroad said. Yasemin Vatansever and Yatunde Diya, both 16, were arrested on 2 July as they tried to board a plane in Accra. The girls, both from north London, were charged with possessing and attempting to smuggle more than 6kg (13lb) of drugs valued at £300,000 into the UK.
The offence carries a jail term of up to 10 years. The students are being tried under Ghana's Juvenile Justice Act. Their trial must be completed within six months. The girls say they were not aware of drugs in their luggage and had been tricked into carrying them.
Yasemin is the daughter of immigrants from Cyprus, while Yatunde is of Nigerian descent. Both are UK citizens.
Ghana and the West Africa region as a whole have become a major transit point for drugs from South America destined for Europe. British customs officials are now working with their Ghanaian counterparts to intercept drug smugglers and, since late last year, more than £30m-worth of cocaine has been seized en-route to Britain from Ghana.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
NIGERIAN SKIMPY DRESSERS ARRESTED !
Lagos is regarded as the party capital of Africa. About 90 women and three men have appeared before a magistrate's court in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, on charges of indecent dressing. A night-time police patrol picked them up on the streets of Lagos, which some see as Africa's party capital.
The clampdown on "indecently dressed girls" was ordered by new Lagos police chief Muhammad Abubakar who says skimpy dressing could cause public disorder. There is no law banning indecent dressing in Nigeria.
Even in the Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria, where strict Islamic Sharia law is practised, women wearing revealing clothes can be found in red-light districts. Mr Abubakar says women in skimpy dresses are often prostitutes and he wants to put an end to such "immorality" in Lagos.
The BBC's Fidelis Mbah in the city says it is common to see scantily-clad women on the streets as some night clubs and restaurants open throughout the night.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
CAIRO TOE EARLIEST FAKE BODY BIT !
The "Cairo toe" appears to have been functional. An artificial big toe found on the foot of an ancient Egyptian mummy could be the world's earliest functional fake body part, UK experts believe. A Manchester University team hope to prove that the leather and wood "Cairo toe" not only looked the part but also helped its owner walk. They will test a replica in volunteers whose right big toe is missing.
If true, the toe will predate the currently considered earliest practical prosthesis - a fake leg from 300BC.The Roman Capua Leg, made of bronze, was held at the Royal College of Surgeons in London but was destroyed by Luftwaffe bombs during the Second World War.
Lead researcher Jacky Finch said: "The toe dates from between 1069 and 664BC, so if we can prove it was functional then we will have pushed back prosthetic medicine by as much as 700 years." Colleagues at the University of Salford will also be testing a second, even older ancient Egyptian big toe which is currently on display at the British Museum.
This artefact, from between 1295 and 664BC, is made from cartonnage, a kind of papier-mâché made from linen, glue and plaster. The British Museum toe may have been cosmetic. Like the Cairo toe, this too shows signs of wear, suggesting that it was worn by its owner in life and not simply attached to the foot during mummification for religious or ritualistic reasons. However, unlike the Cairo toe, it does not bend, suggesting it may have been more cosmetic.
Jacky Finch said: "The Cairo toe is the most likely of the two to be functional as it is articulated and shows signs of wear. "It is still attached to the foot of the mummy of a female between 50 and 60 years of age. The amputation site is also well healed."
The Cairo toe is on display at the Cairo Museum in Egypt.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
NIGER BANS FRENCH MINING OFFICIAL !
Areva is the world's largest maker of nuclear reactors. Niger has barred the local operations director of the French nuclear company Areva from returning to the country after a visit abroad. The authorities offered no explanation for the ban imposed on Dominique Pin. Areva, which mines uranium in northern Niger, has rejected accusations that it is linked to rebel activity.
Some weeks ago, an Areva security adviser was expelled amid local media claims that the country was supporting the Niger Movement for Justice rebels. Areva condemned the measures against Mr Pin. "Nothing that Dominique Pin has done justifies such action," a company official told the news agency AFP. "The accusations made out against Areva are without any foundation," the official added. The company has been operating in Niger for 40 years and is the country's biggest private employer, according to AFP.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
ERITREA 'ARMING ' SOMALIA MILITIA !
Ugandan African Union troops destroy weapons near Mogadishu. Insurgents in Somalia have received huge numbers of weapons in secret shipments from Eritrea, the UN says. There are now more arms in Somalia than at any time since the civil war started in 1991, the UN report says. Eritrea, which has repeatedly denied aiding the insurgents, dismissed the report as a "total fabrication".
Meanwhile, three people have been killed in a hand grenade blast at a restaurant in the Somali capital. It is not known who carried out the attack. It is the first time civilians have been targeted in the current conflict.
In its report to the UN Security Council, the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia said Islamic Courts Union militias - known as the Shabab - had an unknown number of surface-to-air missiles, suicide belts and explosives with timers and detonators.
It said Eritrea had sent at least six SA-18 surface-to-air missiles to the Shabab. The accusations centre on a chartered Boeing 707 cargo plane that made at least 13 trips from the Eritrean capital, Asmara, to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, sometimes filing false flight plans. Eritrea denied the flights but the International Civil Aviation Organisation confirmed them, the report said.
Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu told Associated Press news agency his country had not provided any assistance to the Shabab. "It is a total fabrication and the intention of the report is to depict it as if there is a proxy war between Eritrea and Ethiopia," Mr Abdu said.
There are more arms in Somalia than ever before.The presence of government-backed Ethiopian troops in Somalia had only managed to disperse the Islamist fighters and they still posed a serious threat, the report said. The Islamic Courts Union ruled much of southern Somalia until it was ousted by government-backed Ethiopian troops last year.
Violence has surged since the recent launch of national reconciliation talks and has prompted a fresh exodus of people from Mogadishu. More than 10,000 have fled violence in the past 10 days, the UN says. An estimated 400,000 people fled the capital during clashes between February and May.
The UN refugee agency says attacks by anti-government elements wound and kill civilians daily. Somalia has been without a functioning government for 16 years since the start of the civil war.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
MANN SEEKS TO PREVENT EXTRADITION !
Simon Mann, the British leader of a group of alleged mercenaries, has asked the Zimbabwe High Court to stop his extradition to Equatorial Guinea. Mann's lawyers said he would not have a fair trial in Equatorial Guinea and would face torture there. He was arrested in 2004 when his plane landed in Zimbabwe. He was accused of trying to fetch arms for a coup in Equatorial Guinea, and jailed.
The High Court hearing on Thursday ended without a ruling. Mann, a former SAS officer, was due for early release in May for good behaviour. Also in May, a Zimbabwean magistrate's court agreed to a request by Equatorial Guinea that Mann be extradited to stand trial there. This prompted Mann's appeal to the High Court. He is to remain in custody until the court rules on his appeal.
More than 60 men arrested with him - most of them South African citizens of Angolan origin - were released in 2005 after serving a year's sentence in Zimbabwe. Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former UK Prime Minister now Baroness Thatcher, was fined and received a suspended sentence in South Africa for his involvement in the affair.
The relatives of other plot suspects who are being held in Equatorial Guinea have complained of abuse and unfair treatment. One suspect, a German, died in prison after what Amnesty International said was torture.
Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony, has been ruled by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema since he seized power from his uncle in a coup in 1979.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
ASIMPSONS WIN OVER KENYAN CARVERS !
By Muliro Telewa - BBC News, western Kenya.
A group of carvers in western Kenya are looking forward to the first Simpsons movie hitting big screens around the world, even though they are unlikely to see it. Although most of them in the remote village of Tabaka in Kisii have never watched the animated TV show, Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie have changed their lives and the new film should see demand for their work soar they hope. Soapstone carving is a traditional craft passed down from generation to generation, and the Abagusii tribe is renowned for their carving prowess.
So when Twentieth Century Fox designated the Tabaka soapstone carvings as official Simpsons merchandise in July 2006, their lives improved overnight. The Tabaka Classic Carvers are licensed to produce 12 models of the show's characters, and they are keen to expand their portfolio.
Pauline Kemunto and her husband work with the Simpsons team in Tabaka; he carves the figures and she smoothes the soapstone afterwards "I don't know who they are," she says about the dysfunctional cartoon family. "But I like them because I earn from them."
The team carve replicas of the characters that sell for $6, a huge improvement on the $1 per piece they earned before The Simpsons came to Tabaka.
The business employs around 80 people - the carvers, the miners who provide the soapstone and the women who wash and polish the finished statues. The head of the team, Daniel Oigo Mogendi, said he won the tender by accident when he had gone to the capital, Nairobi, to collect payment for a soapstone chessboard.
His client asked him to carve a prototype of Homer, the big-bellied family man who is fond of a beer. "I'd seen The Simpsons once on television, but I didn't care, I still carved it," he explains."The sample was very heavy and they decided to make it lighter." Now, all the characters are as familiar to him as his family, including minor characters such as Springfield police boss, Chief Wiggum.
The whole project is the brainchild of Paul Young, who was temping on building sites and as a shop fitter in the UK when he came up with the idea in 2004. At first the carvings were too heavy and had to be made smaller.
"My sister used to live in Uganda and would send back traditional African carvings. I thought if you could get something with a more Western spin it could do well," he says. It took more than a year for the Tabaka carvers to come up with a sculpture that would work. "At first we tried full figures. But the hands would snap off during shipping so we'd try them with Homer's hands in his pockets, but then there was the weight issue," he says.
Eventually a bust was felt to be the best solution and the carvers now reproduce the famous features without even looking at the stone. "We know the physical characteristics of The Simpsons so well that we don't have to copy from anywhere," says one of the carvers. "The measurements are even engraved in our memories." It takes skill to replicate the characters exactly each time.
Packing boxes stacked against the walls of the grass thatched hut that serves as their studio reveals the far-flung destinations of the Tabaka soapstone carvings - the US, the United Kingdom and Italy. The famous figurines are about to go on sale in the UK at the Craft Village UK, priced at about $40. Mr Young says 30% of this goes to Kenya, not just to the carvers but to pay for the print work, quality control and packaging. "My favourite carving is of Sideshow Bob," he says. "He's not my favourite character, but it shows how gifted the carvers are as it's replicated exactly with such skill each time."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
SARKOZY SIGNS DEALS WITH GADDAFI !
Libya has emerged from its pariah status in recent years. France and Libya have signed agreements on issues including security, health care and immigration during talks between the two countries' leaders. French President Nicolas Sarkozy met Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli a day after the release of six Bulgarian medics. The six were convicted of deliberately infecting Libyan children with HIV.
The two leaders also agreed to work on a nuclear energy project that will turn sea water into clean drinking water. Their meeting is being seen as a sign of the normalisation of ties between Libya and the EU following the medics' release.
The EU and the United States had made it clear to Mr Gaddafi that resolving the medics' situation was key to improving relations. Libya began to emerge from its pariah status in 2003 after Mr Gaddafi gave up Libya's nuclear weapons programme, says the BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli.
Libya also accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of an airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, and agreed to pay compensation to the victims' families. The medics were greeted in Bulgaria by tearful relatives. Since then, international sanctions against the country have been gradually lifted.
"The objective is to co-operate so as to work on the installation in Libya of a nuclear reactor to supply drinking water from desalinated sea water," said Claude Gueant, an aide to Mr Sarkozy.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she hoped to visit Libya soon and signalled that US investment there could increase. "I know that American companies are very interested in working in Libya," she said in Washington.
The six medics - including a Palestinian-born doctor granted Bulgarian citizenship last month - had been held for eight years after being accused of deliberately infecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood at a hospital in Benghazi. They always maintained their innocence.
Each of the families involved is reported to have received $1m (£500,000) per child in compensation as part of a settlement. Under that deal the original death sentences imposed on the medics were commuted to life imprisonment. The medics' release was made possible by a deal struck in Tripoli on improving Libya-EU ties, following years of negotiations.
Both Mr Sarkozy, the French president, and his wife Cecilia were also involved in the final negotiations. He is the first European head of state to visit Libya since the release. The medics were pardoned on their arrival in Bulgaria by the president, but the children's families have demanded that they be re-arrested.
In a statement, the Libyan Association for the Families of HIV-infected Children condemned the release and pardoning of the medical workers as absurd and disrespectful.
The six, who had been in prison since 1999, say their confessions to infecting the children were forced from them by torture.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
SARKOZYS LEAD FRENCH LIBYA PUSH
By Hugh Schofield - Paris.
She said she would not be a conventional first lady, and she has been as good as her word. Critics have queried what Mrs Sarkozy's exact foreign policy role is. By her personal mission to Libya, Cecilia Sarkozy has pushed back the boundaries of international protocol and arguably helped save the six Bulgarian medics But she has also set a lot of teeth in edge in France - where her husband's opponents say she's stepped right out of line.
A phone-in programme on Europe 1 radio provided an interesting insight into the depth of feeling her mission has raised. "What's the point in having a foreign minister? What's the point in having a prime minister? Why don't we just let the Sarkozys run the country all by themselves?" shouted one irate caller from Paris.
The Socialist Party took up the cry, accusing Mr Sarkozy and his wife of following a "cuckoo's nest strategy"."They're laying their egg in someone's else's nest. It's a complete spectacle. It's the EU that did all the negotiating and now the Sarkozys want to cash in," according to the Socialist former minister Pierre Moscovici.
And even Le Monde newspaper, which has toned down its stark anti-Sarkozy rhetoric from before the election, felt impelled to raise its eyebrows. France feels it is missing out on the chance for contracts in oil development, infrastructure, even civilian nuclear power
Was Cecilia Sarkozy acting as a mother, a humanitarian, an intermediary, or an emissary, it asked. Because every description had been used at some point by the Elysee Palace. "Mr Sarkozy says he is encouraging his wife to find herself a role. It would be nice if he could shed now some light on it," Le Monde said. Arguments will no doubt rage for many months over what effect the Sarkozys actually had in the negotiation to free the prisoners. Did they make a difference, or did they just cash in? In fact it is hard to accuse the president of mere opportunism, because he has spoken in passionate terms about the fate of the Bulgarians since well before his election in May.
The groundwork for the release was clearly done by Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU's external relations commissioner, and Mr Sarkozy's aides do not deny that. Mr Sarkozy wants to set the seal on a new - and profitable - era in bilateral relations. However what they say is that the intervention of the Sarkozys provided a vital fillip to negotiations. After all in Libya - as across the region - it is personal contact that makes the difference.
Whatever the truth, Sarkozy can certainly claim the release as another diplomatic success - and he should reap rich returns. Because for France the issue has never been just humanitarian. Its resolution is also a strategic opportunity to build up links with a country that has more or less completed its return to international respectability.
Since Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's spectacular renunciation of terrorism and nuclear weapons in 2003, he has courted attention primarily from Britain and the US. France feels it is missing out on the chance for contracts in oil development, infrastructure, even civilian nuclear power - and this in a part of the world, north Africa, in which it has traditionally wielded much influence.
The medics were freed after years of negotiation. Hence the president's determination to visit Gaddafi as soon as the prisoner row was over. Mr Sarkozy wants to set the seal on a new - and profitable - era in bilateral relations. As for his wife, she has taken a step - but only one step - towards carving out the kind of independent role she would like to have as France's first lady. Her intervention in Libya was a great success and by all accounts she handled herself with aplomb. But the truth is it was a one-off.
Similar missions - mixing high diplomacy with the humanitarian - will not come round often. And even if they do, she can hardly become her husband's foreign affairs troubleshooter. That would be pushing convention just a little too far.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
