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decaffeinatedconnoisseurninja · 3 years

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Academia but you're in Cairo

staying up late looking up ancient jewllery, its symbolism and the stuff it was made from and the methods they used because that was some intricatte stuff you know

having an unhealthy addiction to tea. milk tea in the morning before stting off. plain tea in the afternoon when youre back. tea with mint in the chilly hours before sunset. tea with lemon when youre sick, with honey when youre sad...

listening to asmahan and laila mourad because their voices make flowers grow in your heart. you see abd el wahab or sayed darwish's names and you know youre about to heaar the most heavenly sounds you ever have.

constant debates about history (esp modern history! which is, regarless, my favourite to study!)

thrifting books from soor al azbakeyah and soor al sayeda zeinab and coming across literal gems that were sold for cheaper than dust

your uni is probably a historical site

just kidding your entire city probably is

long walks in old cairo's warm dusty mornings

constantnly stopping short to take in the glorious architecture you see before you. buildings brimming with equal parts menace and cordial affection that are simultaneously overwhelming and welcoming

does their age take your breath or does their sheer size? does their beauty make your heart flutter or is it the deep, undeniable knowledge that theres never going to be something quite like it ever again?

youre never really out of museums to visit. theres always going to be annother you just havent spotted yet

Did i tell what "cairo" means? It is derived from the arabic word "Al Qahira" meaning, She Who is Victorious. She Who Devastates. She Who is a Conqueress. She Who Is Meciless. a drop in the rich seaof her triumphant history

Visiting the ancient temples in upper egypt, the beauty of whom is so eternally breathtaking it makes you forget the tremendous amount of stairs you had to climb to get there.

Calling north Bahari (meaning "of the sea") even tho that could also be east. But you do it anyway.

The poeple going to and fro being endearing; shout/waving greatings to one another, so full of sincerity and hope in the early morning dew. It feels less lonely somehow

Romanticising everything about life as a form of conscious escapism, like all the poets and playwrights whose blood runs i your veins

there are translated works, and then there are arabic-ized wrorks of literature. its not hard to see that you prefer the latter.

also who came up with titles like "god of sword and quill" and "prince of poets"? we need to have a conversation. i love you and so does everyone else with a basic sense of art

visiting the old palaces and castles and always coming across abandoned ones. you wonder who would dare abpndon something so beautiful. you feel an immense sadness and and a crippling blow of yearning that do nothing to remove the dust coating everything or bring the music back to the pianoforte.

going to bazaars even if you knoe youre not going to buy anything. youre here for the copper, thr bass, the spices and occasional gleap of wine red jewllery. oh and the cat you befriended right outside the coffee shop!

buying jewllery and pottery from khan el khalili or el mo'ez streerts becaue everything is just so pretty and we shop local

going to century+ old cafes and sitting at a table that might have been naguib mahfouz's who knows

analizing the "foreign" words in your dialect and feeling an otherworldluy ense of knowing when you recognize wherethe come from! plage is french! shanta is turkish! em bu comes from coptic eb mu meaning water! nunu is ancient egyptian for fragile! and so much more!

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sxfsource · 3 years

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WELCOME TO SXFSOURCE!

SxFSource is a new fansite dedicated to Spy x Family, a manga written and illustrated by Tatsuya Endo. We aim to share the lovely creations people make for this manga, and encourage others to join the fandom!

We track the tags #sxfsource and #sxfedit! If you want us to see and reblog your content, please add this to your posts, preferably in the first five tags! This blog runs on a queue, so tagged posts may not be reblogged right away.

— MEMBERS & AFFILIATES

We currently are looking for members and affiliates!

If you want to join us as a member, you can either be a content creator or a queue monitor. We hope that content creators can create and post original works at least once a month, and may occasionally take on requests if the blog receives any. Queue monitors are expected to track #sxfsource and #sxfedit, and add posts to the queue. All members will be expected to join a Discord server for streamlined communication. If this interests you, apply here!

We also are looking to affiliate with other fansites and sourceblogs. If you are part of one and would like to become affiliates with us, please apply here!

Any questions about these roles can be sent to us in an ask, and we’ll answer as soon as possible!

— THANK YOU

We are excited to meet new members, become affiliates, and share wonderful creations. To help spread the word, please reblog this post!

Thank you! — Zebra (@reddriot) & Zeinab (@makotun)

#spy x family #dailyanime #fymanganime #graphics-net #allanimanga #shounenedit #anisource #dailystudiobones #shoujo-net #dailystudioghibli #itsmangacap #mangacleaning #sxf #sxfsource #sxfedit #admin.txt #promo post #banner by zebra

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reddriot · 3 years

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I was tagged by the lovely @makotun, @alphonseelriic, and @naruzumake, thank you three so much!

why did you choose your url? because Kirishima is my fave from bnha!

any side-blogs? @/sxfsource (that I run with Zeinab), @/narnianetwork (that I run with Roh, Moh, and Flynn), @/dailyanime and @/animangaboys (that I’m just a member of!)

how long have you been on tumblr? since 2017, but I was purely a Narnia blog back then!

do you have a queue tag? mhm, it’s #queue are made of stardust

why did you start your blog in the first place? to have a fresh start where I can post all of my creations in one place, for any fandoms!

why did you choose your icon/pfp? to match my url haha >.< I actually want to change it soon but I’m not great with icons so it’ll be a while until I color something and make it!

why did you choose your header? for my desktop version, to match with my url! for my mobile version, I wanted to go with a book theme for my navigation posts, so there it is!

what’s your post with the most notes? this Dabi gifset! I’m still really happy with it and I hope to be able to make other gifsets similar to that in the future c:

how many people do you follow? 334!

have you ever made a shitpost? askdjfkdjf probably not

how often do you use tumblr? I’m on it pretty much daily, and it’s one of the main social media platforms I’m on, in addition to Discord

how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this post’? I don’t like the pressure and I just ignore them haha. I know where I stand and what my beliefs are, reblogging one of those doesn’t prove anything or change anythign

do you like tag games? yess I love them! it makes me so happy when I see that people thought of me and tagged me.

do you like ask games? definitely! although I wish I’d get some more interaction when I host them >.< but I always enjoy the interaction I do get!

which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous? basically all of them haha, they’re all so talented and creative and I hope they get the recognition they deserve

do you have a crush on a mutual? definitely a bunch of platonic crushes (because all my mutuals are amazing), and maybe a teeny actual crush (but I’m not hoping for anything!)

I tag @hauntedthief @ererokii @cellotonin @eulaas @beekugou @katsukes @axther @mafuyuh @rivaillerose @miriotogata @katsukiyuuri and anyone else who wants to do this, consider yourself tagged!

#type: text #misc: tagged #misc: about me

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rantiesprithealth · 5 years

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An Ode to the NHS.... 1min Read If I was a celebrity this is when I bring out the cheque book! You must know me by now, even though it’s been a while I have shared any stories. This is because my life have become so routinized of late: go to work, do gym, attend evening classes, just doing the everyday mundane things but with the same vigour of a twenty year old. Consequentially, I am not twenty-something anymore and as Africans would say; ‘body no be wood’. Albeit, an adjustment is needed as you get older. This is my thankfulness to the countless NHS staffs both seen and unseen. I can honestly say that I am a happy taxpayer, well done to HMRC for this mandatory collection from my monthly pay. What would have happened to someone like me who rarely falls sick if I happened to be in Alabama without medic insurance or in any of the great states of Nigeria without basic health infrastructure after mis-use of trillions of dollars of oil revenue. Britain is not without fault, but the NHS is a prized asset. A national treasure where diversity thrives, where everyone is treated with dignity, where all kinds of people irrespective of colour, class or creed utilised their optimal best for us all under budgetary constraints, under shortage of beds. It is too late for me to become a neurologist. On this note, I hope to contribute my taxes for many years ahead in health and wellness. And who knows, I might still become a celeb! Thank you to Zainab, Zeinab, Elizabeth, Fidilia, Sally and the entire team of doctors and staff on the AMU Ward @ NorthMid Hospital. God bless… Interested in all things entrepreneurial. Lover of things that feed body, mind and soul. View all posts by rantiesprithealth (at Enfield Island Village) https://www.instagram.com/p/BuYyA0WA67_XMQfS3aPipAmwnHRPSS354gr_Ag0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=wy81k3u6mgvq

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keikuns · 2 years

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wotakoi + fave female chara for the gif request meme!! <3

zeinab!!! thank you for the request ~ 💕🤧 I hope you like it 💕

#asks #plethores #now onto the next request 🏃🏃

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lepau123 · 6 years

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4. Sneaky

I do hope you like this chapter! again so sorry for mistakes, English is not my first language. I speak Spanish, if you are wondering.

Masterlist!

The evening was cold my robe was not thick enough to keep me warm so I had to light a lot of candles. The sun was setting the sky was red, it looked like it was bleeding. Bleeding before the massacre that is coming. I thought. Zeinab came early, to bring me some food which I ate really quickly. I asked her to deliver a letter to Tøumd. I had change from my dress to a pale beige blouse and pants and my short cloak. I put my blades on and with one last look at the room I leave through the window.

I grab the bumps that the wall had and climb up, grasping to everything I could. It is a rush of adrenaline, you just climb up and look around, everything looks amazing in the heights, as I reached the edge of the roof I push myself up and sit there to catch my breath., you just climb up and look around, everything looks amazing in the heights, as I reached the edge of the roof I push myself up and sit there to catch my breath. What? Almost 300m. Nice.

I heard a movement behind me and in a blur I had him down on his back with my left blade to his neck. But to my surprise it was Tøumd with wide eyes.

"Easy there, I'm not going to do anything" he said with his hands raised.

"Sorry I forgot that you learned how to climb rooftops" I said pulling my blade out and helping him to stand. His height towered me, almost two heads "I'm really sorry" I repeated

"It's nothing" he said laughing "but this time I really thought that you were going to do something" he added with a nervous laugh.

I just gave him a look and shake my head, I walked over a small balcony that watch over the city, you could see he fire lightning the streets. Light turning off and on. The same city that watch me grow and suffer will burn in a few days. I sat down on the edge dandling my foot on the air as Tøumd join me with a nervous expression.

"How could you not be afraid" he said pointing at the height and the huge death fall.

"You get used to it" I simply said "I've been waiting to die for a long time, so it will make no difference if I fall or not." I just raised my legs.

"hmmmm" he said grabbing the wall for dear life.

I looked around seeking for a guard to be eavesdropping our making guard but we were alone, no one was on the rooftops.

"I know the plans for the attack, I requested the port. We have to plan how we are going to make I happen. How we are going to approach them. And if they remember you." I said. I told him how we divided the guard's circles and how everything was controlled

"We can tell them that they are coming from land. There is a small port outside the city that nobody uses." He said "you can say that they have arrived there, the gate is closer to the palace so everyone will go and make the wall there"

"That actually is not a bad idea" I said thinking all the cons a pros. "we still need people".

"Really one assassin can't kill one of us, trust me, if we warn them. We are five times stronger than you" he said.

"Yes but we are ten times faster than you, you have strength. We have the speed and the precision" I added with a wave of hand.

"Fair point well" he said with a gesture of his hand.

"I want you to tell me" I said quickly looking at him and then toward the city that was sleeping under our feet "more stories of Kattegat. I want to know more of them"

"What do you want to know?" he said question looking at me "or perhaps who do you want to meet?" he said correcting himself.

We had this meeting of "people", we usually would describe them and tell me things about them, like what would they normally do in the day.

"I don't know" I said "the only one I know is Ragnar Lothbrok" I said.

"King Ragnar Lothbrok" he corrected.

"Oh so he is king?" I asked looking at him

"As far as I know yes" he said "I don't know now" he added sadly. "So who you want to meet?" he says again.

"I don't know" I said thinking "probably his sons? You told me he had many sons or so that said the seer" I answer myself and him.

"You want to meet the Ragnarsson" he said "Okay".

"first the eldest of the five" he says looking at the city " his name is Bjørn Ironside, his is tall, taller than me, he is very strong, he has blue eyes, he is an amazing warrior, really formidable, he went with his father to raid Paris and to England. He grew up with his father in the golden years, his mother is Lagartha, and he had an adopted member in the family that was a monk or a priest I am not sure which it is. So he has a very different mindset than most Vikings. If you ever meet him if you show you are not afraid he would probably listen to you. Before you ask I grew up with all the Ragnarsson."

"then comes the second eldest which is Ubba, he is very alike to his father or so is told, he is very loyal and kind to the people he cares about he is a very good warrior like his brother, he likes to go out and hunt. He loves and protects his brothers like a mama bear." He says and we laugh.

"Then comes Hvitserk, he is very lighthearted, but never be misled, he is very mysterious, and he is tall like all of us. He is a very angry aggressive warrior he is very good. He looks up at Ubba a lot. He likes to fight train with his brothers."

"Next is Sigurd snake in the eye, he has a snake in his eye. He is a light warrior, he is not as good as his brothers, and he prefers to play instruments than fight, so in our culture he is no warrior at all. That is why he was always excluded from us, he never really understood us when we play."

"And last but not the least there is Ivar the Boneless" he says looking at me this time " you will like a lot his story" he chuckles " from the name as you can hear, he has no bone in his legs, he always crawls around. Rumor has it that when he was a baby Ragnar left him to the wolves, but his mother Aslaug pick him and took him back to the house. He is very selfish, cruel, unpredictable and very wise. He loves a lot his mother and his brothers, Ubba always looks after him, even when he doesn't know" he says and claps his hands "well that is the end of the story telling, any questions?" he raised his eyebrows.

"Ivar can he walk?" I ask curious

"No, he can stand, but I never saw him walking..." he says murmuring "he was very neglected by his father and the people. It's hard to be a cripple or have something wrong with you in the Viking world, it's not like here that you, all the community helps them. Over there you are just by yourself, I mean his father left him to the wolves, what can you expect from him" he says deep in thought.

"Someone like me you say" I said turning to him "what can you expect from me. I have been whipped so many times that I lost count already, and still I will choose to be a monster and kill my father. That makes a monster like him. Because I am violent and cruel. I am the most unpredictable person in the palace and people fear me for it."

"but you are not like him" he says more likely convincing himself.

"what happen if I am?" I asked

"You haven't met him yet" he says "you do not need to trouble yourself."

"Do you think they will allow me to leave with them?" I asked "what happen if they say no?"

"Bjørn will never say no" he says "he loves meeting new people, he will take you and because you are a princess here they can't take you as a slave, we Vikings respect a lot the ranks of nobility either is from birth, rank or acquired. But that follows the way of death." He says

"I think we should go back, I don't want them to start searching for me again" I say with a smirk.

"Yeah" he says and goes to the way he climb up and ties a rope around his waist.

"Hey! That is cheating you have to climb without help." I say crossing my arms and walking towards him, and tugging at the rope and smile.

"Well I am not an assassin that knows how to handle themselves at heights" he says grabbing himself on the wall.

"Have a good night Tøumd" I say shaking my head and smiling, as I head out to my room. I climb the edge and dropped little by little until I reached my floor and swiftly I get inside my room.

I took off all my clothes and put on my silk nightgown and went to the jar and grab a cool glass of water. I unbraided my hair and went straight into my bed and lay there wide awake looking at the high sealing of my room. It really left me intrigued the last Ragnarsson, it seems that we was like me. A monster, not by choice but by how life was treating us. i want to meet them. I though.

How tall they are, how do they look, what would they say about me? I have so many questions and I am so thirsty for answers. And with that the tiredness crashes over me, dreaming to the five sons. The princes of Kattegat.

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chiseler · 4 years

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My Beit Daras, My Nakba: Two Palestinian Intellectuals Reminiscing about Their Destroyed Village

Dr. Ghada Ageel

Dr. Ghada Ageel and Dr. Ramzy Baroud have more in common than their scholarly research on Palestinian history and politics. They are both refugees, and the direct descendants of Palestinian refugees who have been expelled from their historic village of Beit Daras at gunpoint during the catastrophic events that led to the Palestinian Nakba of May 15, 1948.

Starting on March 27, 1948, a small Palestinian village, called Beit Daras, came under Zionist militias’ attacks. With little means - a few old rifles and kitchen knives - the Badrasawis fought back, repelling the first raid and the second.

The final attack on the peaceful village followed a scorched-earth military strategy, leaving in its wake scores of dead and wounded, and the entirety of the village on the run.

Among the thousands of ethnically-cleansed Palestinians in Beit Daras, two families, Ageel and Baroud salvaged a few belongings and went searching for a safe place, with the hope that they would return home in a few days.

Hundreds of their descendants are yet to return to Beit Daras, 72 years later.

“I always say that my body is here in shatat (diaspora), my heart is in Gaza, particularly in Khan Younis refugee camp, where I was born and raised, but my soul is in Beit Daras, my village that is no longer on the map,” Dr. Ageel said.

“I have never been to Beit Daras but I carry it in my heart. I feel immense love and connection, and a sense of belonging. This is thanks to my grandmother Khadija who instilled in us the memory of the land and the desire for freedom. She instilled that memory and that love.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mf93UMYSIQ

Dr. Ageel added, “Today when we are commemorating the 72nd anniversary of the Nakba, of course it is a very sad day, because that day represents the destruction of Palestine, the destruction of Beit Daras and the eviction of over 800,000 Palestinians.”

“Among them, there was my family, my parents and my grandparents. So, I consider myself a third generation of Palestinian refugees and then my children have inherited this.”

For his part, Dr. Baroud contended that that generation of Palestinian refugees has never embraced a sense of victimhood. “Our grandparents were not victims, they weren’t prepared to be victims,” Baroud said, emphasizing that Palestinian Resistance was an immediate response to the Nakba.

“In our village, pretty much everybody knew each other. Imagine what it must have been when the villagers found themselves mixed among hundreds of thousands of people, new faces, new tribes, new families, new clans. It’s almost like death and rebirth in your own lifetime.”

“My original family didn’t own much land, and this is a key for me. Because my Right of Return is not attached to an actual material wealth or entity, it is because it is my right and it has been so embedded in my identity as a Palestinian, and my understanding of myself and my being can only be complete when I am back there, whether I have a small plot of land or a massive one.”

Dr. Ageel insisted that “the Right of Return is possible.”

“It’s not only a dream, I would say this is the magic wand. If we mention it, in front of any generation (of Palestinians), their eyes would light up, because this is the return to your homeland. And in fact, it is not only a physical return, it is a return to dignity, it is a return to freedom, it is a return to where you belong.”

Ramzy Baroud

Baroud and Ageel discussed the importance of reclaiming the Palestinian narrative by Palestinians.

“The story that we are communicating right now (that of ordinary Palestinians) is not the dominant narrative. It is important to go to the Israeli archives or to the British archives and dig out some testimonies of soldiers about killing and raping; yes, it is important, but what about our version of that story? Why is it that Palestinian history must be always centralized around an Israeli point of view and an Israeli narrative? How do your grandmother Khadija and my grandmother Zeinab fit into this trajectory of historical narratives?” Baroud asked.

“It is so essential that we, Palestinians, unconditionally reclaim our history and retell it from the beginning, not only for the others, but for ourselves and for our children as well,” Baroud concluded.

by Romana Rubeo

- Dr. Ghada Ageel is a visiting professor at the University of Alberta Political Science Department (Edmonton, Canada). Her latest book is Apartheid in Palestine: Hard Laws and Harder experiences.

- Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons”. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University.

Romana Rubeo

- Romana Rubeo is an Italian writer and the managing editor of The Palestine Chronicle. Her articles appeared in many online newspapers and academic journals. She holds a Master’s Degree in Foreign Languages and Literature, and specializes in audio-visual and journalism translation.

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beninlife · 7 years

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Voodoo Child

Bonsoir!

Day 5 of 2017, already. I was talking with a friend about time and how quickly it flies by as an adult versus as a child. As a child, I remember summers seem to last forever! I can still remember my favorite snow cone flavor from the Shaved Ice stands (Strawberry) or my favorite pair of shoes because everything was new. As an adult, a year has gone by in a blur and we can hardly remember what we cherished the most. I hope you all had a lovely end to your 2016! For me, my best friend Christiana invited me to her home for Christmas dinner with her son and friends. She cooked rice with curry sauce, cheese and vegetables. We enjoyed wine and watched music videos until midnight! Knowing this was my last Christmas in Benin, I was happy to be spending it with her-my chosen family here. For New Year’s, I traveled to Cotonou and a group of 10 volunteers had a mellow evening of dinner on the patio at a volunteer’s home. He had a 360 view of Cotonou and at midnight you could hear and see fireworks in any direction! Last year I was in Togo for New Year’s, so I was blessed for the fireworks and company that 2017 had to offer. I finished reading another book, “Room Full of Mirrors” Jimi Hendrix Biography as I sat and contemplated what 2017 has in store for me. For one, this is the year I will be coming home! It has not been an easy journey over here, and I imagine difficulties lie ahead, but I know I will be forever changed by it. While I do not believe in New Year’s Resolutions anymore, I have on-going intentions in my life that I set. For the present moment, my three intentions are:

1.) Continue to improve my French

2.) Spend more time with Pauline (my Beninese Mama) and her daughters - Christiana and Zeinab

3.) Be happy

I have already taken action on each of these intentions and the biggest change I have made so far was getting rid of my Facebook! While I thought it was keeping me connected to friends and family back home, it was in fact filling my spirit with anxiety. Every negative political post. Every post about the Kardashians. People knowing more about Carrie Fisher’s cause of death than the number of deaths in Turkey from bombings. Every post from other Peace Corps Volunteers complaining. I decided, for those who really want to keep in touch with me or for those I really want to keep in touch with, there is email or What’s App. I immediately felt better removing Facebook and I am overwhelmed with the love I have received from friends via email. Some I have not talked to in a very long time! It also made me realize how poorly I have attempted to keep in touch with people since arriving in Benin. So, being more present and less attached to my phone is helping to carry out all three of my intentions for my remaining time here.

I spoke about these three intentions on my English Radio show this week and then discussed the future of the program with the Director. He would like to make the show interactive, meaning folks can call in and practice English with me for 15 minutes. This is set to begin on January 18, or so! I will keep you posted.

So far the garden fence construction project is going really well! I think we are 80% finished. As far as other projects, they are on hold until my Let Girls Learn grant is approved. The national Voodoo Festival is January 10 so a few volunteers are heading to Ouidah to see it! I am excited to observe the traditions and practices in a large setting versus with one or two Voodoo priests or priestesses in Bohicon. I have started on my next book, “Buried Alive” a Biography on Janis Joplin. Aside from that, a new kitten lives across the way from me and frequently visits for a rub. (I am so tempted to get a kitty now but I won’t…that would not be fair with 8 months left..nor can I afford the $1,000 or $2,000 fee to vaccinate it and ship it to the USA on a plane with me when I fall in love with it and cannot leave it behind)

All is well in my world! Thank you for the continued support and love.

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aminuorg · 4 years

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The Street Child - Streetism in Ghana

A Poem by our student Zeinab Lavielle Ibrahim

THE STREET CHILD

Can your silent cries be heard?

Or you wish to die?

Maybe Yes and maybe No

Society may prove you so.

Succumbed to hard conditions,

I feel your pains!

Fate made you so,

Or society held you so?

Heartbroken and disturbed,

Your lives are in jeopardy

Your number is rising!

Yet, your predicament is overlooked.

Will society realize their mistakes?

Or, will your future be succumbed to a depleted fate?

I see no justification in trading your innocence

Your parents are just architects of negligence.

I hope and pray for a redefined destiny

And may you be far from any atrocity

I pray life offers you a better treat

And your life never goes back on the street.

A short introduction of Lavielle and our Junior Program

Before we continue with today’s topic “Streetism” we would like to introduce the writer to you.

Here is a short video of Lavielle who has been a student of our Junior Program in Nima-Accra for a long time. Despite her physical handicap Lavielle is full of energy, an ambitious student as well as the founder and leader of an youth organisation called “GADA” (Girls Against Drug Abuse).

Our Junior Program is empowering less privileged children through education and medical support in Nima-Accra. This is where our founder and chairman, Amin Zaaki, was born and raised. He knows by his own experience what it means to live and survive in places like Nima, Mamobi or Newtown. He believes in the power of formal and informal education and that it is one way out of poverty. Our afternoon Kids Club is providing a safe space to the children and youth of the neighbourhood where they can meet, play, read, do their homework or seek advice from our team.

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MENACE OF STREET CHILDREN

An Essay by Zeinab Lavielle Ibrahim

Streetism has become a normal routine to the eyes of many. Why fancy streetism? Personally my pen goes to book upon seeing street children. “If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write’’ Martin Luther once said. I believe in writing to bring out the voice of the voiceless. Street children involve neglected kids, children from broken homes, poverty stricken children, etc.

The living of homeless or unmonitored children on the street is called streetism. Also streetism can be as a result of increased urbanization and the difficult socio-economic circumstances rural families are experiencing. Thus, most people in rural communities admire the idea of living in the city, little do they know about the challenges associated. On the street of Nima, Fadaama, Ashiaman, Madina, Agbobloshie, etc. the lives of teens on the street cannot be counted. It saddens my heart to see the future struggling to fend for themselves.

Currently, about sixty-one thousand children are on the streets of Accra struggling to make ends meet. In May 2009, a head count of street children was done in Accra. The result obtained showed that 43% of the total population were males and the 57% were females.

Exposure to rape, murder, prostitution, vandalism and illegal drug usage is highly experienced by street children. During traffic jams. Street children seek for alms and even follow vehicles upon moving which life is very threatening. Someone might ask how deadly is this? For a pesewa or cedi, a street child must follow a vehicle whiles moving to the expense of claiming one’s life.

Respectively, Parents and Guardians, why leave a child to the street? The danger in living on the street is soo bad. Nailing down to “Faceless” by Amma Atta Aidoo can mirror the contemporary life of a street child. Whether poor or rich, there’s no justification in leaving a child to the street. Little attention is given to alarming issues like ’’Streetism’’. It is a cycle of violence and complications. Children supposed to be acquiring learning skills are out there on the streets endangering their lives. I ask myself, where are Government Officials, Religious Heads, Community Leaders, Parents and or Guardians? Why have we instilled fear in being Voices to the Voiceless?

Effectively, Public education is a tool in curbing streetism. Parents, guardians, children, religious heads, etc. must be educated intensively on the effect of streetism. Streetism leads to extreme deprivation and social exclusion, creating avenues for engaging in crimes. This must be well-known to people. Parents must engage themselves in trading activities to fend for their children. ‘Poverty is the mother of crime’’ said by a Roman statesman. Also, Rehabilitation is another way to eradicate streetism. Trading ideas, formal education and handmade skills must be equipped to street children in rehabilitation firms. Related organizations like Street Children Empowerment Foundation (SCEF) must be established to support street children and their families.

The Ministry for Gender, Children and Social Protection must stand up to its work. They must walk up to major streets and at least not lend a helping hand but give the street child a right to a better life. The Government, Corporate Ghana, Media and all citizens must work vigorously to eradicate streetism. Putting all hands to wheel, lets find a lasting solution to end streetism.

Let’s ensure that, the street do not become breeding grounds for social vices. I vividly believe, our effort can unearth the creativity in a street child for a better Ghana. I call on politicians and appeal to them, Let’s take a bi-partisan method to deal with street children. I, Ibrahim Lavielle Zeinab believe the standard of life is raised by being more human and less being.

STREET CHILDREN DESERVE EQUAL RIGHTS.

SAY NO TO STREETISM!!!

#aminuinitiative #ghana

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dipulb3 · 4 years

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He was an athlete in the best shape of his life. Then Covid-19 nearly killed him | Appradab

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/he-was-an-athlete-in-the-best-shape-of-his-life-then-covid-19-nearly-killed-him-appradab/

He was an athlete in the best shape of his life. Then Covid-19 nearly killed him | Appradab

And when he appeared down, he could not acknowledge himself. As soon as a 215-pound athlete with chiseled muscular tissues and astounding power, the 40-year-old appeared like a very totally different individual.

“I awoke and checked out my arms, my legs, and my muscular tissues have been gone,” he mentioned. “I used to be sort of freaking out, like the place are my legs? The place did my legs go?”

Ayyad is a coronavirus survivor.

Medical doctors had positioned him in an induced coma for 25 days to avoid wasting his life.

It has been somewhat over two months since these touch-and-go days and he is nonetheless recovering. Nonetheless out of breath at occasions. Nonetheless nursing the harm to his lung and coronary heart.

However he has a message — for many who refuse to put on a masks throughout this pandemic, for these dismissive of public well being steerage, for these within the prime of their well being and really feel invincible towards coronavirus.

“It worries me so much seeing individuals take this calmly,” he advised Appradab on Tuesday. “I bought it and survived, and I am nonetheless terrified.”

The way it all started

It began with an awesome feeling of weak point.

One week, Ayyad was operating his personal restaurant and membership in Washington, DC whereas working at his household’s retail furnishings enterprise. He was racing marathons and competing in impediment course races, taking weekly basketball lessons, and boxing, one in all his favourite sports activities.

The following week, his complete life had modified. Strolling up the steps left him exhausted. So did cooking, speaking, and driving.

Then got here the coughing and sneezing. Finally it was a excessive fever, complete lack of vitality and urge for food, and an issue respiration.

Ayyad thought he had the flu.

However after one in all his associates, a doctor assistant, urged him to go to the hospital, he took an Uber to Sibley Memorial Hospital on March 15. Their suspicions have been confirmed; he examined optimistic for influenza and the coronavirus.

His situation continued to worsen. He was positioned on a ventilator and instantly transferred to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, the place he was put in an induced coma.

Nearly all of coronavirus sufferers who’re positioned on ventilators are positioned in an induced coma as they’re often too uncomfortable to remain relaxed with a tube down their throat, which makes them really feel like they cannot breathe.

Ayyad turned the hospital’s third Covid-19 affected person and the primary to be positioned on a ventilator, John Hopkins mentioned.

Whereas medical doctors stay not sure why the athlete was at extra danger, particularly with such good well being and no preexisting situations, “there may very well be components” they nonetheless do not totally perceive, Dr. Sandra Zaeh, who handled Ayyad within the hospital and continued to look after him after he returned house, mentioned in a hospital news release.

“It was extraordinarily emotional,” Ayyad mentioned. “I knew I might be on this fully alone. Then I referred to as my buddy and advised him to select up my canine. And that was it. I did not know what was coming. I did not know if this was the final time I might speak to them. I did not know if I used to be about to die.”

What occurred subsequent

Ayyad would not know for certain when or the place he was uncovered to the virus. Per week earlier than he started displaying signs, he took a 3-day journey to Florida to go to his brother. It might have been then.

As he lay in a hospital mattress, his relations have been tormented they’d lose him with out even getting an opportunity to say goodbye.

When his mother, Zeinab Ayyad, first laid eyes on her son after he was launched, she burst into tears. She longed to carry her son in her arms. As a substitute, she was compelled to face far-off on a avenue and watch him go inside his condominium to self quarantine in solitude.

Each three days, she cooked for him Palestinian meals — stuffed grape leaves, Molokhia, Maqluba — and did her finest to “fatten him again up,” he joked.

“I had nightmares each evening, calling the hospital at Three a.m. simply to verify he was nonetheless alive,” Zeinab advised Appradab.

How issues at the moment are

After almost a month with out strong meals, Ayyad clearly remembers the second he bought to eat once more.

“It was apple sauce,” he mentioned. “I used to be so completely satisfied. That first chew, it felt so satisfying. Nicely, earlier than I noticed I forgot the right way to swallow. It is like I did not bear in mind the right way to eat. I needed to study that once more. However I will not neglect the apple sauce.”

It wasn’t simply swallowing that the athlete needed to study once more. He could not speak or stroll both. For the subsequent three weeks, each motion knocked the breath out of him, elevating his coronary heart charge and leaving him gasping for air.

However he was removed from discouraged.

Day by day, Ayyad tried one thing new. First he began with leg extensions from his hospital mattress utilizing the blankets. Then it was aspect lunges. Finally he was off the bed, squatting and strolling laps after laps. He was decided.

After lastly going house on April 22, Ayyad was 60 kilos lighter. He had a blood clot in his left arm, harm to his coronary heart and lungs, and spent the subsequent month struggling to do something with out shedding his breath.

However on a regular basis, little by little, he was gaining again his weight — and muscular tissues.

“He appears to be making an excellent restoration,” Zaeh, the physician, mentioned.

“It was exceptional to go from seeing him at his sickest within the ICU — intubated, deeply sedated and on his abdomen to assist him breathe — to seeing him at house. He was smiling and speaking about how completely satisfied he was to go for a brief jog and sit exterior with the solar on his face,” Zaeh mentioned.

Ayyad is now virtually again to regular. Whereas he is again to boxing, understanding on a regular basis, taking part in basketball and hopefully operating marathons quickly sufficient, he is nonetheless apprehensive in regards to the virus.

“Persons are appearing prefer it’s gone. It isn’t. Put on your masks. Do not collect in large teams. Care for your self and the individuals round you,” Ayyad mentioned.

“Take it critically. It isn’t a joke. It could actually kill you, even when you suppose you are wholesome and proof against it. You are not.”

He is aware of. He hopes others haven’t got to search out out the exhausting manner.

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bountyofbeads · 4 years

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Successor to Slain Iranian General Vows Revenge: Live Updates https://nyti.ms/2QtwqEt

Successor to Slain Iranian General Vows Revenge: Live Updates

“God the almighty has promised to get his revenge,” said the man who will take over for Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, increasing fears of an escalating cycle of retaliation.

By The New York Times Staff | Published January 6, 2020 | New York Times | Posted January 6, 2020 |

RIGHT NOW

American troops will be limited to training and advising Iraqi forces, but will not be allowed to leave their bases while plans are made for their departure, an Iraqi military spokesman said.

Here’s what you need to know:

Teeming crowds chant “Death to America.”

Throngs of people chanting “Death to America” crowded the streets of Tehran on Monday as Iran mourned Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, whose funeral was held in the capital. The military commander was hailed as a martyr, and his successor swore revenge.

“God the almighty has promised to get his revenge, and God is the main avenger,” vowed Esmail Ghaani, the Iranian general who will take over the Quds Force, the foreign expeditionary arm of Iran’s elite paramilitary organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “Certainly actions will be taken,” he added.

State-run news outlets reported that millions had gathered in Tehran, and images showed of a sea of mourners, many wearing black and waving the nation’s flag in an outpouring of grief.

General Suleimani was killed by the United States on Friday in Baghdad in a drone strike. American officials said the general had ordered assaults on Americans in Iraq and Syria and was planning a wave of imminent attacks.

His killing has set off fears of escalating retaliatory actions by Iran and the United States, and of a broader regional conflict. In the aftermath of the attack, Iran said it would no longer abide by a 2015 agreement to suspend uranium production.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, wept openly at the funeral while offering prayers over the general’s coffin. Ayatollah Khamenei had a close relationship with the general, who was widely considered to be the second most powerful man in Iran.

General Suleimani’s daughter, Zeinab Suleimani, said in a eulogy that the United States and Israel faced a “dark day.”

“You crazy Trump, the symbol of ignorance, the slave of Zionists, don’t think that the killing of my father will finish everything,” she said at the funeral.

The general’s funeral was attended by a broad swath of Iranians, including reformers who oppose the government of President Hassan Rouhani but who perceived the killing as an attack on all of Iran.

“I felt like he was our safety umbrella spread above Iran,” said Amir Ali, 22, a university student. “I felt safe knowing he was out there.”

Iraq recalibrates after vote to expel American troops.

The Iraqi government has begun to consider new parameters for the American military in Iraq after lawmakers voted 170-0 on Sunday in favor of expelling United States troops from their country.

The troops will be limited to “training and advising” Iraqi forces, but will not be allowed to move off their bases or to fly in Iraqi airspace while plans are being made for their departure, said Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf, the military spokesman for Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.

The vote on Sunday was not final and many lawmakers did not attend the session. But Mr. Mahdi drafted the language and submitted the bill to Parliament, leaving little doubt about his support for the expulsion.

The drone strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani on Friday also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.

The attack was viewed by many in Iraq as a violation of the nation’s sovereignty, and the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that it had summoned the American ambassador. Iran reacted to Sunday’s vote with congratulatory messages.

But the Iraqi Parliament was divided over the demands from angry citizens to expel American troops. Nearly half of its members, primarily Kurds and Sunnis, did not attend Sunday’s session and did not vote. In his speech to lawmakers, Mr. Mahdi laid out two possibilities: to either quickly end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, or to set a timeline for their expulsion.

The measure approved by Parliament did not include a timeline, and only instructed the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq. Officials said no decision had been made about whether any American troops would be able to stay, or under what conditions.

By Monday, there was still no timetable for the troops’ departure and no specifics about whether all American forces would be asked to leave or only some. And while Mr. Mahdi’s rhetoric was tough in his speech to the Iraqi Parliament on Sunday, by late in the evening, after speaking with President Emmanuel Macron of France by phone, his language was more modulated.

In a post on Twitter describing their phone call, Mr. Mahdi suggested that he was leaving the door open to something less than a complete departure.

He said he had agreed with Mr. Macron to “continue to discuss this delicate issue.”

He added that they talked about “the withdrawal of the foreign forces from Iraq in a way that would not damage the battle against ISIS and would preserve the sovereignty of Iraq and keep its relationships with the countries of the international coalition” that is fighting the Islamic State in Iraq.

Those goals would be difficult to achieve without some continued presence by the United States, because other countries’ troops are unlikely to stay in the absence of American military support.

Trump doubles down on threat to attack Iran’s cultural sites.

President Trump on Sunday doubled down on his threats to attack Iranian cultural sites and warned of a “major retaliation” if the Iranian government planned tit-for-tat attacks in the aftermath of the killing of a senior military commander.

Mr. Trump defended the drone strike that killed General Suleimani.

Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Trump said in a tweet that the United States had selected 52 Iranian sites, some “at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture” to attack in the event of Iranian retaliation.

That prompted the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to say that “targeting cultural sites is a war crime.”

But on Sunday evening, aboard Air Force One on his way back from his holiday trip to Florida, Mr. Trump did not back down.

“They’re allowed to kill our people,” he said to reporters. “They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way.”

Iran pledges to restart uranium enrichment.

The Iranian government said it would no longer abide by a commitment it made under a 2015 nuclear deal that limited its enrichment of uranium.

The decision to lift all restrictions on the production of nuclear fuel spelled the effective end of the nuclear deal, experts said, though Iran left open the possibility that it would return to the limits if sanctions were lifted.

“It’s finished. If there’s no limitation on production, then there is no deal,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a nonprofit in Washington.

The announcement came after the Iranian Supreme National Security Council held an emergency meeting on Sunday after General Suleimani’s assassination.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will end its final limitations in the nuclear deal, meaning the limitation in the number of centrifuges,” the government said in a statement. “Therefore Iran’s nuclear program will have no limitations in production including enrichment capacity and percentage and number of enriched uranium and research and expansion.”

The announcement followed several steps by Iran to move away from the terms of the agreement, nearly two years after Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the deal. Since that renunciation, the Trump administration has imposed severe sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s economy.

The nuclear agreement ended some economic sanctions on Iran in return for its verifiable pledge to use nuclear power peacefully.

Iran’s statement on Sunday did not include details about its enrichment ambitions. And the country did not say that it was expelling the inspectors who monitor its nuclear program.

The European parties to the deal, including Britain, France and Germany, as well as China and Russia, also signatories to the deal, had struggled to preserve the agreement as tensions between the United States and Iran worsened.

Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a daily news briefing that there was still hope for the nuclear deal. He noted that Tehran had said it would continue to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iranian activities under the agreement, and that it could return to the pact under the right conditions.

“We believe that although Iran has been compelled to reduce adherence owing to external factors, it has also demonstrated restraint,” Mr. Geng said.

Europe scrambles to preserve the nuclear deal.

In a joint statement on Sunday night, Britain, France and Germany called on Iran to refrain from violence and to return to “full compliance with its commitments” under the 2015 nuclear agreement, which Tehran has seemed to all but have abandoned.

The statement followed Iran’s announcement that day that it would no longer abide by the limits to uranium enrichment set out in the deal, a move that seemed to finally kill off the agreement after months during which Tehran had carefully breached less significant limits.

President Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal in 2018.

The European statement seemed somewhat forlorn, since its efforts to preserve the deal have been weak, hamstrung in part by a desire to maintain good relations with Washington. The statement did not support the drone strike on the Iranian general but did acknowledge American concerns, saying that, “we have condemned the recent attacks’’ on coalition forces in Iraq and “are gravely concerned by the negative role played by Iran in the region.’’

The statement called for “de-escalation” of tensions from all parties and reaffirmed the Europeans’ determination “to continuing the fight against Islamic State, which remains a priority.’’ And it called on Iraq “to continue to supply the necessary support to the coalition’’ — in other words, to not expel American and NATO troops.

The secretary general of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, called an emergency meeting of the alliance’s advisers on Monday afternoon.

Josep Borrell Fontelles, the European Union foreign policy chief, posted on Twitter that while the bloc regretted Iran’s announcement on the deal, it would wait for independent verification from the international nuclear monitoring group to determine what actions would be taken.

Peter Stano, his spokesman, said during a news briefing in Brussels said that de-escalation was the goal.

“It’s in our interest as Europeans to maintain this agreement,” Mr. Stano said.

On Monday, Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister, said that the Europeans would talk to Iran and planned to come up with a coordinated response.

“This could be the first step toward the end of this agreement, which would be a great loss,” Mr. Maas told a German radio station. “And so we will weigh things up very, very responsibly.”

Mr. Maas will travel with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany to Moscow on Jan. 11 to hold talks with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on the situation in Iran and Iraq, Ms. Merkel’s office said.

Oil prices surge to nearly $70 a barrel.

Oil prices surged and stock markets in Asia fell on Monday morning, as the impact of General Suleimani’s death ricocheted around the world.

The price of Brent oil, the international benchmark, jumped above $70 in futures trading as markets digested a steady flow of news over the weekend. It fell back below that level, to $69.92 a barrel, when markets opened in Europe, though the price was still about 5 percent higher than before the killing last week.

The sudden escalation in tensions in a region that supplies much of the world’s petroleum has roiled oil markets. The West Texas Intermediate, the American oil benchmark, rose 1.9 percent to $64.22 a barrel in futures trading.

Analysts at Capital Economics have warned that the price of oil could spike to $150 a barrel if the bellicose rhetoric between the two countries turned into action.

“The price of oil would soar in the event of full-blown military conflict in the Middle East,” said Alexander Kozul-Wright, a commodities economist at Capital Economics.

Johnson faces first foreign policy crisis of post-Brexit era.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, fresh from winning a mandate to take Britain out of the European Union, faces a particularly vexing challenge in dealing with the escalation between the United States and Iran.

In the first foreign policy crisis of the post-Brexit era, London is caught between its traditional alliance with Washington — one that Mr. Johnson wants to deepen further with a trade agreement — and the new relationship with Europe.

In his first statement on President Trump’s decision to strike the general, Mr. Johnson took pains to emphasize the threat posed by the Iranian military leader and said, “We will not lament his death.” But Mr. Johnson also called on all sides to avoid aggravating the situation, echoing the language used by the French and German governments.

Mr. Johnson suggested he wanted to play a mediating role and noted that he had spoken to Mr. Trump, as well as to President Emmanuel Macron of France and to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. The European governments have been more circumspect in their reactions to the American strike, with the Germans criticizing Mr. Trump’s threat to impose sanctions on Iraq if Baghdad were to expel American troops from bases in the country.

Mr. Johnson was said to be upset that Mr. Trump had not notified him of the strike in advance, but he can ill afford a falling out with the president, given Britain’s need to initiate trade talks with Washington.

China condemns the U.S. over Suleimani’s death.

Chinese state-controlled news media on Monday condemned the United States for the killing of General Suleimani, amplifying China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, who warned of a “vicious cycle of confrontation” between the United States and Iran.

“Solving the conflicts between the United States and Iran can’t be achieved through military strikes or extreme pressure,” People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, said in an editorial. The editorial appeared under the pen name “Zhong Sheng,” which is widely used to offer the paper’s views on foreign affairs.

The editorial likened the latest crisis to the United States-led occupation of Iraq in 2003 and Western intervention in Libya in 2011.

“The facts prove time and again that unilateral resorts to armed force will not solve problems,” the paper said. “Instead the outcome will be the opposite, leading to a cycle of confrontation that will be difficult to clean up.”

China has been reducing its imports of oil from Iran as United States sanctions have deepened, but it remains heavily dependent on crude from the Middle East, especially from Saudi Arabia. Beijing has also tried to shore up the international agreement that curtailed Iran’s nuclear development.

On Sunday, the Chinese embassy in Washington warned Chinese citizens to be extra careful about their safety in the wake of the crisis with Iran.

Fears of worldwide conflict were shared across social media over the weekend, but Xinhua, China’s main official news agency, published a commentary saying that outright war between the United States and Iran still seemed unlikely.

“Faced with the 2020 election, Trump has deliberately used attacking Iran to shift the focus from domestic tensions and add to his electoral chips,” read the commentary, “but he has no intention of launching a war.”

Evacuations planned and alerts raised for foreigners in Iraq.

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines on Monday held an emergency meeting with defense officials to discuss a potential evacuation plan for the thousands of Filipino workers stationed in Iran and Iraq. The Philippines has a huge population of expatriate laborers who live and work in the region.

“President Duterte ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines to be prepared to deploy military assets to repatriate overseas Filipinos in the Middle East, particularly from Iran and Iraq, at any moment’s notice,” said Senator Christopher Lawrence Go, a close ally of Mr. Duterte who was at the meeting, according to The Associated Press.

On Monday, New Zealand became the latest country to advise its citizens to leave Iraq, but officials denied reports that it had decided to withdraw troops stationed there as part of a training mission. The training mission was said to have been postponed as tensions in the region soared.

“New Zealanders currently in Iraq despite our advice who have concerns for their safety are strongly advised to depart as soon as possible,” the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

______

Reporting was contributed by Alissa J. Rubin, Russell Goldman, Alexandra Stevenson, Farnaz Fassihi, Christopher Buckley, Ben Hubbard, Megan Specia, Steven Erlanger, Melissa Eddy, Mark Landler, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Eric Schmitt, Vivian Yee, David D. Kirkpatrick, and Edward Wong.

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euroman1945-blog · 6 years

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The Daily Tulip

The Daily Tulip – News From Around The World

Thursday 12th July 2018

Good Morning Gentle Reader…. Good Morning my good Friend where ever you are on this little blue planet as I sit and write this morning, and as we each take our allotted journey through space and time.. each of us experiencing life in our own individual way, Yesterday, I experienced happiness as I spent time on the beach with my family and of course Bella was included, the mayor has designated a beach called Perro (DOG) Beach (Which I spoke to you about Last year) and we as a family went to enjoy the ocean together, and boy!!! did Bella have fun interacting with all the beach loving perro's and their families, swimming in the warm waters of the Mediterranean, rolling in the sand, and being a dog, she had fun and it was infectious.. I smile every time I think about it... Warm again this morning, but what can you expect it's summer in Spain..

WHO’S A BRIGHT SPARK… TESLA TO BUILD WORLD'S LARGEST LITHIUM ION BATTERY IN AUSTRALIA…. An Australian state will install the world's largest lithium ion battery in a "historic" deal with electric car firm Tesla and energy company Neoen. The battery will protect South Australia from the kind of energy crisis which famously blacked out the state, Premier Jay Weatherill said. Tesla boss Elon Musk confirmed a much-publicised promise to build it within 100 days, or do it for free. The 100-megawatt (129 megawatt hour) battery should be ready this year. "There is certainly some risk, because this will be largest battery installation in the world by a significant margin," Mr Musk said in Adelaide on Friday. He added that "the next biggest battery in the world is 30 megawatts". The Tesla-built battery, paired with a Neoen wind farm, will operate around the clock and be capable of providing additional power during emergencies, the government said. "It will completely transform the way in which renewable energy is stored, and also stabilise the South Australian network as well as putting downward pressure on prices," Mr Weatherill said. Mr Musk's 100-day pledge will begin once an electricity grid interconnection agreement has been signed.

ONE OF AFRICA'S BEST KEPT SECRETS - ITS HISTORY…. Africa has a rich and complex history but there is widespread ignorance of this heritage. A celebrated British historian once said there was only the history of Europeans in Africa. Zeinab Badawi has been asking what is behind this lack of knowledge and looking at the historical record for an African history series on BBC World News. The Great Pyramid of Giza in Cairo is rightly considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. But travel further south along the River Nile and you will find a thousand pyramids that belonged to the Kingdom of Kush, in what is now Sudan.Kush was an African superpower and its influence extended to what is now called the Middle East. The kingdom lasted for many hundreds of years and in the eighth Century BC, it conquered Egypt and governed for the best part of a century. What remains of the kingdom is equally impressive. More than 300 of these pyramids are still intact, almost untouched since they were built nearly 3,000 years ago. Read More:

CHINA'S FIRST OPERATIONAL AIRCRAFT CARRIER LIAONING ARRIVES IN HONG KONG…. China's first operational aircraft carrier Liaoning has arrived in Hong Kong. Its first trip outside mainland China is part of the events marking the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover from Britain to China. Its follows Xi Jinping's visit last week, his first as Chinese president. During his trip, which was marred by protests, he warned that any challenge to the Beijing central government was "impermissible". Hong Kong's political climate has grown tense in recent years with increasing calls for self-determination and even independence. In 2014, Beijing said it would allow direct election of the city's leader, but only from a list of pre-approved candidates. That led to mass protests - known as the umbrella demanding universal suffrage. Mr Xi's visit to the city came amid tight police security. Following his departure on Saturday, thousands of people marched in an annual event calling from more democracy.

ASHUTOSH MAHARAJ: FOLLOWERS WIN FIGHT TO KEEP GURU IN FREEZER…. An Indian court has granted permission for the followers of a long-dead spiritual guru to preserve his body in a freezer. Ashutosh Maharaj, founder of the sect Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan (Divine Light Awakening Mission), died of a suspected heart attack in January 2014. But his followers insist he is only meditating deeply, and will one day return to life. They have kept his body in a commercial freezer at his vast ashram in Punjab. The judgement by Punjab and Haryana High Court ends a three-year-old dispute between the guru's disciples and Dalip Kumar Jha, who claims to be his son. Mr Jha had sought permission to cremate the guru's body, in line with Hindu rituals. In rejecting his plea, the court set aside a 2014 judgement that had ordered the guru's cremation after doctors confirmed him clinically dead. Mr Jha's lawyer told AFP it was unclear whether the court had agreed with the sect's argument that its founder was alive.

MS SHEILA MICHAELS: FEMINIST WHO POPULARISED 'MS', DIES AGED 78…. Sheila Michaels, an American feminist who brought the honorific "Ms" into mainstream use, has died aged 78. Ms Michaels did not invent the term, but is credited with rescuing it from obscurity after she saw it used in an address, thinking it was a typo. "Ms" did not convey a woman's marital status, unlike the traditional options "Mrs" or "Miss". "I had never seen it before: It was kind of arcane knowledge," she said. Speaking to the New York Times in an interview last year for her own obituary, she said the honorific resonated with her, both as a feminist and as the child of unmarried parents. "[I] was looking for a title for a woman who did not 'belong' to a man. There was no place for me," she told The Guardian newspaper in 2007. "I didn't belong to my father and I didn't want to belong to a husband - someone who could tell me what to do." Born in St Louis, Missouri, Ms Michaels spent some of her childhood in New York City. She was a lifelong feminist activist, biblical scholar, and collected oral histories of the civil rights movement later in life. In her professional life, she worked as a ghostwriter, editor, and even ran a Japanese restaurant - but her obituary in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes her favourite job was being a New York City taxi driver.

Well Gentle Reader I hope you enjoyed our look at the news from around the world this, morning… …

Our Tulips today are rather lovely..... to tell the truth I think they are beautiful....

A Sincere Thank You for your company and Thank You for your likes and comments I love them and always try to reply, so please keep them coming, it's always good fun, As is my custom, I will go and get myself another mug of "Colombian" Coffee and wish you a safe Thursday 12th July 2018 from my home on the southern coast of Spain, where the blue waters of the Alboran Sea washes the coast of Africa and Europe and the smell of the night blooming Jasmine and Honeysuckle fills the air…and a crazy old guy and his dog Bella go out for a walk at 4:00 am…on the streets of Estepona…

All good stuff....But remember it’s a dangerous world we live in

Be safe out there…

Robert McAngus #Travel #News #Blog #China #Spain #Bella

#robertmcangus #robert mcangus #travel #news #blog #china #spain #bella

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dragnews · 6 years

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Lebanese Voters Want Change. Few Expect It.

But despite the country’s pride in being a rare Arab democracy, few expect the long-awaited elections to do much to solve its pressing problems.

“Is this going to bring a new government that is able to change things?” said Sami Atallah, the director of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies. “No, because we have a system that has successfully undermined all accountability mechanisms. As long as these are not in place, I can’t see how these politicians will be able to deliver to the people.”

Lebanon’s political system is an unwieldy compromise based on sect-based power sharing. Half the seats in Parliament are assigned to Christians and half to Muslims. Most parties are based on sect and their supporters look to them for protection and patronage more than for sound policies. Some are still led by warlords from the country’s 15-year civil war, or their offspring.

Since 2009, the government has collapsed twice and the country went without a president for more than two years because the factions could not agree on one.

There has been no parliamentary election since 2009 because Parliament decided not to have one. A departing Parliament was supposed to finish its four-year term in 2013, but decided that conditions were not right for elections to be held, so it effectively re-elected itself — twice.

Since the civil war ended in 1990, parts of the country have been occupied at times by Syria and Israel, keeping the central state weak and allowing powerful figures to divvy up the economy.

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“People are fed up,” says Yahya Chamas, a businessman who is running in Lebanon’s parliamentary election on Sunday. Credit Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times

That dysfunction has spilled into the political system, creating a Parliament that cannot hold the government accountable, a politicized judiciary and a news media that is either heavily partisan or for sale to the highest bidder.

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“All these institutions that could play a role in the political system have been co-opted or destroyed, so you end up with confessional representation and no one being held accountable,” Mr. Atallah said.

A recent study of the departing Parliament found it to be out of step with citizens’ greatest concerns. Of the 352 laws passed between June 2009 and April 2017, for example, only 31 — 9 percent — related to health, education, water and electricity.

The vote on Sunday will include more than 500 candidates competing in 15 districts for 128 seats. The vote will be the first under a new electoral law that supporters say will diminish the focus on sect and allow a wider range of candidates to run. But it is so complicated most voters do not understand it and no one can fully predict what effect it will have.

In one notable change, dozens of women are running. In 2009, only 12 women ran, winning only four seats. Also new is a coalition of civil society candidates focused on improving services.

“You have new voters, you have new candidates and you have a significantly improved system that we think will bring some new blood into the system,” said Les Campbell, the regional director for the Middle East and North Africa for the Washington-based National Democratic Institute, who is in Lebanon with a team of observers.

Since the last election nine years ago, 700,000 young people have become eligible to vote and may make their decisions differently than their parents, he said. But he was cautious about how much change to expect.

“I would never underestimate the ability of Lebanon’s power brokers to find a way to get the new law to work in their favor,” he said.

The system still favors big parties and the wealthy.

To buy airtime on television stations, candidates pay tens of thousands of dollars per hour.

Pierre El Daher, the chief executive of LBCI, one of the country’s most watched stations, said two candidates had spent more than $700,000 with his station during the campaign. Most spent less than $100,000.

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Some voters will follow the “devil-you-know” philosophy, worrying that newcomers could bring unforeseen havoc.

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A poster of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, in Baalbek, Lebanon. Hezbollah has provided crucial support for Mr. Assad’s government. Credit Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times

“We all hope for change, but we don’t expect it,” said Suha Ghader, a teacher. “In fact, God willing, the same people will get elected because I’m scared of the alternative.”

That hampers independent candidates like Mr. Chamas, who served in Parliament years ago but was expelled in 1994 because of allegations of drug smuggling, which he denies. (He says the accusation was cooked up by a powerful Syrian politician who was out to get him.)

In the interview, he said he had bought billboards, spent $15,000 for an hourlong appearance on one television station and agreed to pay $25,000 for an hour on another. But when he turned down a morning show, he was offered evening slots that cost twice as much. An hourlong, prime time interview with a popular anchor cost $80,000, he said, more than he could afford.

During the interview, his phone rang. It was a voter asking Mr. Chamas how much he would pay for a vote. Mr. Chamas said he did not buy votes, thanked the caller and hung up.

It was unclear whether the caller was seeking the highest bidder for his ballot, a common practice in Lebanon, or secretly recording Mr. Chamas’s answer to use in an attack post on social media.

Mr. Chamas blasted the political class that has long led the country as self-serving and corrupt.

“They have been ruling for 30 years, with corruption and without providing services,” he said. “There is no electricity, no roads, no economy. So who is responsible?”

That view is a popular one, so the big parties have adopted a similar message.

“The biggest problem in the country is corruption,” said Ali Moqdad, an incumbent from Hezbollah who is also running in Mr. Chamas’s district.

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When asked what he had done against corruption since entering Parliament in 2005, Mr. Moqdad responded, “Nothing.” He blamed Lebanon’s sectarian politics for making such change difficult.

But his party’s power to mobilize was clear an hour later during a large election rally nearby, where Hassan Nasrallah, the party’s leader, implored the crowd via video link to vote. Thousands of people came, despite a violent hailstorm that had left the ground muddy.

Mr. Moqdad said that 640 Hezbollah members from the area had been killed fighting in Lebanon and Syria in recent years. The party pays monthly stipends to their families, making it unlikely they would vote for anyone else.

After the rally, two women posed for pictures with their young daughters, who both wore white wedding dresses and held framed photos of their fathers, fighters who had been killed in Syria.

“Those who are seeing the martyrs’ photos on the walls of Baalbek, those who sacrificed their lives, should be ashamed of not voting for the Hezbollah list,” said one of the women, Zeinab al-Bazal.

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