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Caught

(From the newzimsituation.com)
Grace and Robert mugabe
According to a respected South African Newspaper Zimbabwe’s first lady reportedly had an extra-marital affair with Zimbabwe’s central Bank Governor and President Mugabe’s personal banker Gideon Gono
When President Robert Mugabe’s younger sister, Sabina, died in Harare after a short illness, pictures showed the 86-year-old president looking devastated at her funeral.
Mugabe hopes the embarrassing secret of his wife’s infidelity with one of his right-hand men is safely buried with the body of the hapless Chademana
The trusted guard who spilled the beans has died suddenly
But it may well have been more than the death of his beloved sister that shattered Mugabe and sent his health into what is reported to be further decline.
According to one of Mugabe’s most trusted bodyguards who was present at the time, Sabina Mugabe, 75, warned her brother before she died that he was being betrayed by two of the most important people in his personal and political life: his wife and his personal banker, a pivotal member of his regime.
Sabina told the president that Grace and Gideon Gono, the powerful head of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and Mugabe’s confidant, were secret lovers.
Grace, 41 years Mugabe’s junior, has taken lovers before. One lover, Peter Pamire, died in a mysterious car accident. James Makamba, one of Zimbabwe’s richest businessmen and a top-ranking Zanu-PF official, enjoyed her favours but their affair ended in tears, too, when a furious and sexually jealous Mugabe ran him out of town in fear of his life.
But never before has Grace been romantically involved with a politician in Mugabe’s inner circle. And never before has a man so close to the president risked allowing it to happen.
The dangers from discovery are high. Zimbabwe state intelligence officials made it known that Mugabe’s detection of the affair had already led to the murder of the bodyguard present at Sabina’s bedside and more trouble would almost certainly follow. (more at the zimsituation.com)
(From the zimdiaspora)
The Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, is “ready to go to war” over allegations that his wife Grace cheated on him as she leaves the country for their multi-million pound home in Hong Kong.
Sources close to the president’s camp say he is livid about the claims that Mrs Mugabe, who is 41 years his junior, had a five-year affair with Gideon Gono, one of his closest friends and the head of Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank.
The 86-year-old leader is due to convene an emergency meeting with senior aides and Dr Gono today and could take legal action to silence the rumours.
Mr Mugabe’s spokesman denied suggestions that Dr Gono had gone into hiding amid fears his life might be in danger.
Grace and Robert mugabe cheating
Meanwhile Grace Mugabe is said to be “extremely upset” and lying low at the family’s £4m mansion in Hong Kong, where their daughter Bona attends university.
She and married Dr Gono were alleged to have met up to three times a month at her farm, friends’ houses or at hotels in South Africa and Malaysia, and to have intended to set up home together after Mr Mugabe died.
He was said to have been “devastated” when he learned of the allegations from his sister Sabina, shortly before she died three months ago.
A man previously alleged to have had an affair with his wife, Peter Pamire, died in mysterious circumstances and another, businessman James Makamba, fled to the UKapparently fearing the same fate.
Robert and Grace Mugabe, a former typist in his office, began their affair when he was still married to his terminally ill wife Sally, and married in 1996.
Dr Gono could not be reached for comment although staff in his office insisted he had turned up for work “as normal”.
A source said to be close to the Mugabes and Dr Gono told the website New Zimbabwe said they were planning a joint fightback.
“There is a major meeting planned for Wednesday which will be attended by lawyers and advisers to the President and Gono,” she said.
Another source said: “Dr Gono is a very trusted individual who had been allowed more than any other person access to the family.
“Gideon Gono needs to get this sorted and needs to clear this very fast to restore the trust of the president.”
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Watch out for Africa, says the World Bank

Africa economic opportunity
 
The World Bank's new report on Africa, published this week, concluded that that continent "could be on the brink of an economic take-off, much like China was 30 years ago, and India 20 years ago".
 
In its draft strategy for Africa, published on Monday, the bank said the continent's steady economic growth, progress on the millennium development goals and good rates of returns on investments give Africa "unprecedented opportunity for transformation and growth". Promoting Africa as an exciting and lucrative investment destination will be crucial to fulfilling this potential, it added.
 
"The emergence of new development partners such as China, the untapped potential of mobilising domestic resources, as well as the rise in private capital flows to Africa, calls for a new approach – Africa as an investment proposition – and points to the need for new partnerships among governments, development partners and the private sector," said the bank.
 
Based on data from the World Development Indicators, private cash flows (remittances and foreign direct investment) to developing countries totalled more than $650bn in 2009, while official development assistance fell to less than $130bn.
 
As the strategy's name – Africa's future and the World Bank's role in it – might suggest, the draft, which comes five years after its last Africa Action Plan, is both an optimistic reading of Africa's development and an assertive defence of the critical role the bank can play in its future. According to some, the emergence of new and very eager investors like China and India has left the bank worried about losing its footing on the continent.
 
Writing in the Nairobi-based Business Daily, Johnstone Ole Turana argued that: "The increased accessibility of grants from the BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India, China] nations, which is being provided with less conditionality compared to the World Bank and the western countries' bilateral aid, has forced sub-Saharan African nations to re-orient their engagement from the west to the east."
 
The draft moves away from a focus on single-issue projects – in an implicit critique of an MDG model of development with separate targets – and instead focuses on systems and structures, giving special attention to closing Africa's "infrastructure gap" and leveraging its investment potential. This means developing a more "attractive" climate for foreign investors, tackling "key constraints" from the regulation of labour and land to the lack of "financial (and overall business) literacy".
 
The bank is, of course, positioning itself as the essential partner for both developing countries and potential investors, willing and ready to exercise its "comparative advantage" in partnerships, knowledge, and financing. "From the reputational perspective, it's absolutely crucial for them to be seen as linchpins to African development, particularly with regard to private sector linkages" , said Soren Ambrose, from Action Aid Kenya, last month.
 
Yesterday, the bank's managing director, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, approached the China Mining Congress, being held in Tianjin, China, with a bid for how "the World Bank can help lay the ground work for larger investments", offering knowledge and guidance to investors and advice to governments on how to marry investment and development priorities. Okonjo-Iweala also advertised the bank's programme of providing "political risk" insurance to investors in case of war, civil unrest or expropriation.
 
Changing perceptions
The draft also sets out the bank's commitment to improve the otherwise poor perceptions of Africa, which can make attracting investors challenging. The paper claims the rate of return on foreign investment in Africa is higher than in any other developing region, but notes that "given its legacy of poverty, slow growth, conflict and disease, not everybody sees Africa as the emerging frontier".
The bank's wants to help change the public mindset, "not just in providing the evidence of the changes on the continent and educating the rest of the world, but also in supporting those, such as the media, who interpret this evidence to the public and thereby shorten the lag between perceptions and reality".
 
The bank also plans a shift in its own communications with the public, moving away from the stand-alone reports aimed at specialist audiences.
 
One early example of this shift is the bank's decision to make public a series of stakeholder consultations on the draft strategy, held in 36 countries between June and September this year, and uploading a promotional video on YouTube.

 

[youtube]RjcQhptocqQ[/youtube]

 

 
Now, the bank has launched an online consultation alongside the draft, actively seeking comment from the public to feed into its final strategy for Africa, due early next year.
 
What feedback the bank chooses to incorporate into its strategies and programmes on the continent – if any – is the crucial question. In the past, critics, such as Beatrice Edwards, of the Governance Accountability Project, have come down hard on the bank for showing "transparency about the problem but no accountability or attempt to fix it".
 
But the online consultation does provide an opportunity to tell the bank what you think – and posting a comment isn't too arduous, at least from the UK. Feel free to cross-post your comments here.
(Report from the Guardian, UK)
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So what’s up with this one shoulder thing?

First of all let me say that I’m not a journalist. I’m a chemist. What I do here is called blogging. Blogging gives me more latitude to cover whatever crosses my mind hoping somebody will read them.
For the past few weeks, I have been writing heavily on malaria, Robert and Grace Mugabe, poverty in Africa and the responsibilities of developed nations towards Africa.
I would like to digress today. I’ll attempt to talk about fashion.
As we say, ladies first. I’ve being observing this one shoulder bandwagon for a while. As a disclaimer, let me say that I find them cool, cute, and flirty- all at the same time (in fact, most of the time). I always thought this one shoulder thing was an American trend until I visited Ghana in March/April this year. I was there for a few weeks but I had the opportunity to attend a funeral one Saturday. By the way, if you’re uniformed, Saturday’s are for funeral in Ghana, unless you’re an Adventist.
one shoulder
]It was at this funeral that I realized how mistaken I was. As a scientist, I hate to give unsubstantiated percentages unless I have the figures to calculate them. However, from my ‘guesstimation’, l can say that half of the women I saw at the funeral were one-shoulder moms. So it wasn’t an American thing, after all. Another surprising observation I made was that, this one-shoulder phenomenon is no respecter of age. I could easily spot one shoulders among teens, twenty somethings, thirty somethings, all the way into the seventy somethings.
“Ok so this one-shoulder trend is a global phenomenon”. I accepted with some childlike guilt.
One shoulder stuff 2
And those women 5000 miles away even know how to make it extra youthful and classy than their western counterparts. I never knew you could combine a one-shoulder dress and a head scarf and blow it up with a bold belt. What a new twist. I saw it live and they looked kind of neat. What they probably need is some tight strapless bras to go with their one shoulders, and they’ll surely be unstoppable.

If air tickets down a little bit, I”ll repeat my adventure next spring. I’ll report back what I see. No shoulders? You bet. Perhaps, it no new thing over there.

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Tit Bits: In Health and Sceince

 
 Need to improve your sense of smell? Put on a few more pounds
A study by researchers from the University of Portsmouth finds that people who are overweight have a greater sense of smell for food.
The researchers suggest this may explain why some people struggle to stay slim.
It is an already known fact that the part of the brain that processes information about odor is connected to the feeding centers of the brain.
The latest research is published in the journal Chemical Senses
 
Finally a malaria Vaccine?
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the British pharmaceutical giant, is currently running a Phase 3 clinical trial to confirm the safety profile of what would be a much-awaited for  malaria vaccine. The trial is taking place across seven countries in Africa and data is expected in 2011.

Hope for you if mathematics scares you.

A report in the scientific magazine Current Biology says that by applying electrical current to the brain, they could enhance a person's mathematical performance for up to 6 months without influencing their other cognitive functions.
The findings may lead to treatments for the estimated 20 percent of the population with moderate to severe numerical disabilities (for example, dyscalculia) and for those who lose their skill with numbers as a result of stroke or degenerative disease, according to the researchers.
 
Abortion deaths in Africa
A report from the  UN's Economic Commission for Africa  estimates that about 36,000 women die annually from unsafe abortions in Africa. Many of them are young girls who have unwanted pregnancies and who are forced to have operations illegally….so-called back-street abortions
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Reducing trauma in HIV orphans

uganda orphans
When a child loses a parent to HIV/AIDS, grief counselling helps with the trauma of loss, but when the child is both poor and orphaned, the chances of a fulfilling life are significantly diminished.
Studies have found high levels of psychological distress among such orphans, and suggest interventions to improve their mental wellbeing. Here are some ways to minimize trauma among these children:
Keep them in the family
Most African orphans remain with their extended families, being cared for by either the remaining parent, grandparents or other relatives. Studies show that staying with family is best for children; institutional care should only be a temporary solution or last resort.
Keeping brothers and sisters together also enhances their emotional wellbeing; a 1998 Zambian study found increased emotional distress after sibling separation.
 
In addition, it appears that remaining with closer relatives rather than more distant ones is also better for orphans. A 2003 study in the district of Rakai, central Uganda, found that the more distant the relative, the lower the chances of child survival.
 
Meet their basic needs
Few African parents leave wills, and property grabbing is common when adults die; in a Ugandan survey, 21 percent of orphans aged 13-18 reported property grabbing. The phenomenon undermines the livelihood of families already weakened by the death of parents.
In addition, families who take in orphaned children are often poor themselves; additional mouths to feed often stretch limited resources to breaking point. These families may need economic support to a larger number of dependents.
 
A 2008 study suggested that programmes such as school-feeding schemes, sustainable food and gardening projects, employment initiatives and targeted assistance for grant applications could have positive mental health impacts on AIDS-orphaned children.
 
Provide psycho-social care
Dealing with the loss of a parent is tough enough, but watching a parent die, adjusting to a new family and dealing with stigma and a much worse economic position make counselling all the more important. A 2002 study in Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, found that orphans were significantly more likely than non-orphans to internalize their problems, jeopardizing their long-term mental health.
Grief counselling is important, notably for younger children who do not yet fully grasp the concept of death. Orphans may also need more life-skills training, particularly if they are not living in traditional family set-ups and have little chance of learning, for instance, gender roles and how to make the transition from childhood to adulthood. Peer support groups can be especially helpful in allowing orphans to share their feelings with people who may be going through similar situations.
 
Keep them in school
School drop-out rates tend to be higher among orphaned children; they often quit school to care for sick parents and never make it back into the education system. A 2004 Princeton University study of 10 sub-Saharan African countries found that orphans were at significant risk for lower school enrolment.
"When these orphans are not in school something happens, they refuse to think, but once they get back in school they regain focus on their lives," she told IRIN/PlusNews. "The difference between the child on the first day of farm school and one term later is amazing – they begin to look like any other child."
Free primary education has gone some way to improving overall school attendance, but other factors, such as living with a non-relative, continue to hamper orphans' education.
School-based peer support groups have also been shown to reduce psychological distress of orphaned younger children and teenagers.
 
Caring for the carers
Families taking in orphans face challenges too – a new household structure, additional expenses and the responsibility of caring for psychologically distressed children.
Custodial families may need counselling themselves to adequately respond to the emotional needs of orphans.
Surviving grandparents often step into the role of parent when their children die from AIDS-related causes. A Ugandan study  found that custodial grandparents experienced extreme economic deprivation, felt physically challenged with care-giving and emotionally stretched by concerns for the children under their care.
According to a 2009 South African study, families caring for orphans are not receiving the support they need; the authors found a lack of assistance from social support services and family. They recommended that health workers and home-based caregivers be trained to support orphans' caregivers.
 
Authors of the Ugandan study recommended that grandparents be offered "respite care, child care, parenting support, support groups and skills development and recreational opportunities for the grandchildren".
 
(A UN Study/IRIN)
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I feel pretty today

Naa Adjeley Addo
  Naa Adzeley is from Newark, NJ and lives in Forth Worth, TX. She enjoys cooking and writing and defines shopping as her cardio.
 
  Composed and submitted by Naa Adzeley in response to the post 'The Black woman new look'

 
I feel pretty today
Looking in the mirror at my less than perfect reflection
 thinking, “Man, I need a tan”
I start to laugh
My gap tooth reflection smiles back at me
I look and feel great
 
I feel pretty
Cosmo, Vogue etc. may not agree
But who cares… I think I’m cute
My lips and hips may be thicker than they’d recommend
And… yes I do need to exercise more
And I could stand to lose more than a few pounds
But…I still look good
 
I feel pretty
My nails are done, minus the acrylic
My hair is fly and chemical free
Pretty pink toe nails in my traditional black ahenema
You can’t tell me that I’m not the shit
Throw on my shades as I walk out the door
Haute!!!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Cocoa genome ‘will save chocolate industry’

Yusif Aban
The public release of the genome of the cacao tree – from which chocolate is made – will save the chocolate industry from collapse, a scientist has said.
Howard Yana-Shapiro, a researcher for Mars, said that without engineering higher-yielding cacao trees, demand would outstrip supply within 50 years.
Dr Yana-Shapiro said such strains will also help biodiversity and farmers’ welfare in cacao-growing regions.
The genome’s availability will likely lead to healthier, tastier chocolate.
The sequencing of the genome was an international, multidisciplinary effort between firms including Mars and IBM, the US department of agriculture and a number of universities, and was announced in September.
Dr Shapiro, once described as a “biodiversifarian”, was speaking at an event at IBM’s research labs in Zurich when he called the date the genome was released “the greatest day of my life”.
“In late 2007, it became very apparent to me that we would not have a continuous supply of cocoa going into the future if we did not intervene on a massive scale to secure our supply chain.”
“Cote d’Ivoire is the largest producer of cocoa in the world,” Dr Shapiro continued. “Mars has bought cocoa from there for sixty years – but when we started to understand the environmental and ecological conditions, the productivity, sociocultural and economic conditions, I realised this was a moment of crisis for this region.”
What is at issue is both the inherent yield of varying strains of the Theobroma cacao tree, which on average currently produce 400 kilograms per hectare of land. What is needed is to make more cocoa from fewer trees and less land.
“In 10 years, under a 2% increase in consumption we will need (an area corresponding to) another Cote d’Ivoire. There is no more place to grow it, productivity with less land must be our driver.”
The genetic codes of major global staple crops such as rice and wheat have been decoded, with a view to improving yields or nutritive properties. However, those crops are grown principally on large, industrial farms.
Cocoa, by comparison, is grown for the most part on small farms by individual farmers and sold on in a less centralised market.
Disease and drought
For that reason, Dr Shapiro said, increases to yields or the cocoa butter and fat content – for which cocoa farmers are actually paid – could directly affect the lives of some 6.5 million small farmers around the globe.
Under his direction, the consortium sequenced the Theobroma cacao genome in a remarkably short time, finishing three years ahead of schedule.
The whole of the genome was first published, as Dr Shapiro puts it, “in the public domain and protected from patenting for perpetuity – so everyone would have free and continued access to it”.
Now correlations between certain characteristics – such as disease and drought resistance or higher proportions of healthier fats – can be made in the field with the benefit of relatively inexpensive laboratory equipment. In this way, each region ensures it has strains that will produce the most, and the best, cocoa.
There are a number of other characteristics that, in time, may be maximised on a genetic basis – such as the level of chemicals known as flavinols, which have been implicated in laboratory tests of heart health.
‘Ecological stability’
“Soon it will be the norm as opposed to the exception: healthy fats, high levels of flavinols, so that chocolate will actually become something quite different. Whether that’s 10, 15 20 years away, it’s on that track now.”
Higher yields will free up land for other under-utilised crops in the region such as yams, sorghum and plantains. Dr Shapiro sees such small changes – that a chocolate consumer never sees – as a tangible human benefit of science-driven agriculture.
“It gives you social stability in the rural sector, it gives you cultural stability that doesn’t break up the rural sector, it gives you environmental stabilty because we’re reducing the risk to the environment from agricultural chemistry, it gives you ecological stability because we’re protecting the remnant forest, it also sequesters carbon,” he said.
“This is the really ‘Green Revolution’ of understanding the entire ecosystem from which you are working.”
By Jason Palmer, Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Zurich
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Africa Must Feed Itself

by Dr. Akin Adesina, Dr. Wangari Maathai and Dr. Graça Machel

Africa is rising. The 2010 Ibrahim Index of African Governance reveals some very good news: 40 out of 53 African countries have made significant strides in terms of economic and human development indicators. The Millennium Development Goals Report of the United Nations show that the agricultural growth rate has become positive, a first in almost thirty years. Between 1990 and 2005, the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 per day declined from 58% to 51%. The proportion of undernourished people declined from 31% in 1990 to 26% by 2005-2007. The African Development Bank has published an upbeat African Economic Outlook that points to a bright future for the continent.

Yes, our continent is scoring some major victories, but we are far from winning the war against hunger and poverty. Africa still has 300 million people living on less than $1.25 per day – nearly as many people as are living in the entire United States of America. The vast majority are smallholder farmers, about 70% of whom are women.

Africa’s average staple crop yield is still less than one ton per hectare, compared to a global average of 5 tons per hectare. For millions of farmers in Africa, accessing basic technologies to help them raise food production is a major challenge. Leaders have failed to urgently prioritize the challenges facing poor farmers in Africa. Leaders must act on their behalf.

Farmers should be able to at least feed their country’s population. In the USA, farmers represent only 1 % of the population, but they still feed the nation and generate enough surpluses to feed many more people around the world. Yet, in Africa, we see such shocking sights of farmers queuing for food aid. What a paradox! The 70% of our population working in agriculture cannot feed themselves, let alone the 30% that are not in agriculture. Many African countries still rely on food aid and the continent as a whole spends $25 billion every year importing food.

No politician hoping to become President in America dares ignore the American heartland. President Obama kicked off his historic election in Iowa, the breadbasket of America. But in Africa, the political cost of inaction on hunger and poverty has been zero. Our politicians count on constituents in rural areas who engage in farming for a living to keep them in office, yet they largely ignore agriculture.

But change is coming. What matters for millions of Africans is the ‘democracy of the stomach’. The food crisis and social unrest that the continent witnessed during 2007-2008, rekindled by the recent food riots in Mozambique in 2010, are tipping points. Political pressure is building as empty stomachs rumble. A growing number of countries are responding. For example, Mali is now spending 11% of its total budget on agriculture, Burkina Faso 15% and Ethiopia 17%.
But deeper changes are needed. Agriculture in Africa has for far too long been managed as a development program. Agriculture is a business and should be seen and supported as such. With 70% of our people engaged in the sector, African agriculture is a potentially very powerful engine of growth that must be kick-started to generate greater domestic income, savings and investment.
As the globe marks World Food Day, we need to ensure the right to food of every African. Begging for food is not the way to ensure that right. The right to food is only truly meaningful when a nation can feed itself.

Local solutions are working in Africa. Malawi, for example, is now self sufficient in food production, five years after it faced a major food crisis. It achieved this by significantly increasing government support for its farmers. Access to improved seed and fertilizer and the knowledge to use them turned the tide. Malawi fed its 15 million people. It also exported 400,000 tons of maize in 2009.

On the rolling hills of Rwanda an agricultural revolution has begun. The plan is bold and the payoffs substantial. Government support to farmers was provided to help them afford needed farm inputs. The result was an agricultural growth rate of 15% in 2009 and national food security.

What has brought about these emerging agricultural revolutions? The answer is simple: political will and government support for farmers. When leaders do their part, African farmers will stand and deliver.

African farmers are no different from farmers in other parts of the world. Our farmers, the majority of whom are women, are hard working and entrepreneurial. What they need are comprehensive farm support policies that will allow them to produce more food to feed the continent.

An African green revolution – one based on political will and country driven solutions – will help Africa feed itself by raising agricultural productivity in sustainable ways. When we are able to feed ourselves, our freedom will be meaningful. Only then will democracy and the right to food be truly meaningful for the 300 million of our people still living in extreme poverty.

Dr. Akin Adesina, Vice President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, Dr. Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and environmental and political activist, and Dr. Graça Machel, former first lady of South Africa and Mozambique and a member of the Group of Elders, were recently appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General to the Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group.