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Archive for July, 2008

Clinton vows to support Ethiopia\’s alternative energy project

Posted by africanpress on July 31, 2008

Former US President Bill Clinton, who started his African tour in Ethiopia on Wednesday, has vowed to support Ethiopia\’s alternative energy project.

He told host Prime Minister Meles Zenawi that he appreciated the country’s move to use alternative energy inputs to tackle the energy crisis.

Ethiopia some months ago launched a multimillion dollar alternative energy project aimed at minimising the country\’s dependency on imported oil. The project aims at using sugarcane and Jatropha plant to generate alternative sources of energy.

During his discussions with Meles, Clinton expressed appreciation for the scheme and pledged his Bill Clinton Foundation\’s support to the project.

The foundation is working in Ethiopia in the fight against malaria and HIV/Aids as well as the prevention of HIV/Aids among children through mothers.

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API/APA

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How did we African Americans become living contradictions of our former selves?

Posted by africanpress on July 31, 2008

How have unity, racial pride, and educational aspiration, once hallmarks of Black identity so dramatically declined?  How did we African Americans become living contradictions of our former selves?  Do we continue to accept the easy and convenient answer that they all merely disintegrated when integration and other subsequent opportunities became available?
Moreover, can the core of our problems still somehow be connected to White racism?  Many Americans today believe that Dr. King’s dream has been, for the most part, fully realized in America and that therefore consequently, Blacks failure to achieve is now perceived as totally the fault of Blacks alone.  But has Dr. King’s dream been fully realized in America, or are we all the victims of an elaborate illusion that equality now exists for all Americans?
Today the illusion of opportunity and change has been so firmly established upon the national consciousness that to suggest that the current problems among Black America are now the results of White racism has become almost laughable.
Presently, it is conceivable that if anyone were to now blame the many disparities among Black America on White racism that they would be immediately accused of playing the inevitable race card.  There might also be charges of peddling victim hood in order to enjoy the moral advantage that victim-hood lends to emphasize this position, toward absolving Blacks from all responsibility. 
 Certainly, there are some Blacks who have wrongly peddled victim-hood and blame of Whites; however, today this scenario of the Black victim-hood peddler is deliberately over stated and perpetuated in America.  The effect is utter disdain for these Black accusers – even from fellow Blacks.  This is deliberately done to prevent Blacks from realizing that there is actually a modern, deliberate system of racism implemented by America’s White governmental elites with the underlying objective of maintaining White dominance. Due to the prevalence of White dominance in America, the prevailing perception has become that race is no longer significant in American society and that therefore racism can no longer be claimed a factor in the unhealthy state of Black America.  However to find the true answers to the persistent despairing problems among America’s  Black communities Blacks must not be deterred , but instead be willing to persevere beyond White indifference, ridicule, disapproval, and/or accusations of victim-hood peddling for they are now deliberately employed as tools of deterrence to keep Black America from discovering the truth.  
 The truth is although today most African Americans do not experience racism the way their parents experienced it, they do, however, still experience White racism.  White America’s practices of economically exploiting and suppressing its Black population were never actually abandoned, but instead sophisticatedly reincarnated.  White racism in the U.S. persists as a current and devastating problem that is now deployed more sophisticatedly, covertly, and more proficiently than ever before.  White America’s methods of institutional racism has been secretly modified into a more contemporary and stealthy design that provides a more socially acceptable means to covertly control and suppress the advancement of its African American population. 
The decline of the blatant, overt racism used in the United States to suppress African Americans through the 1960’s coincided with the introduction of a well-camouflaged, more proficient, sophisticated, and covert method of White racism better suited for the times.  This modern covert system is directly attributed to the intensification of internalized self hatred, profound disunity, and present confused outlook now prevalent in Black America. Though African Americans today are measurably more successful than their predecessors in every field, this current system of deploying white racism ensures that African Americans remains the most racially devalued most deliberately exploited and suppressed group in America.
 
For the most part the manner in which we African Americans approach and/or confront White racism is extremely outdated. Today, unfortunately, whenever the topic of racism is discussed among African Americans, this implies (for most) the images of police brutality, racial profiling, driving while Black, and, of course, the Ku Klux Klan and similar White, anti-Black organizations.  While these are all serious elements of racism that does deserve our attention, they are neither the most prevalent nor do they represent the most detrimental form of racism faced by African Americans today. 
Because the past, blatant methods of insuring White dominance caused momentum for resistance because they were so obviously immoral and unjust, the U.S. government secretly implemented a far more sophisticated methods of maintaining its white dominance.  Today’s system is far more sophisticated, elaborate and proficient than any system of racism previously faced by African Americans – even slavery.                                                                          
The present despairing state of Black America is a deliberate occurrence carefully contrived by America’s ruthless white ruling elites.  Although the formal covert Counterintelligence Program [COINTELPRO] deployed by the FBI directed against African Americans during the period of 1956-1971 was discontinued. However, in truth today there is a far more sophisticated and massive governmental scheme being implemented against the entire African American population as a means of ensuring that white dominance and control is maintained. This present system uses the methods of propaganda techniques based upon the works of renowned psychologist Dr. Edward Bernays.
 Dr. Edward Bernays was a nephew of Sigmund Freud and one of the most skillful experts in mass manipulation.  He invented the modern day Madison Avenue advertising Agencies by using his Uncle Sigmund’s knowledge of the human psyche to make people feel they needed whatever product was being advertised. Edward Bernays also invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud’s ideas to manipulate the masses. Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn’t need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.  
His most notorious feat was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. Bernays was convinced that this mass method of manipulation was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. For him it was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle, Sigmund Freud, had identified, people could be made happy, docile, angry, self hating or even confused.
 
During World War I, Bernays and journalist Walter Lippman were hired by then United States President, Woodrow Wilson, to participate in the Creel Commission, the mission of which was to sway popular opinion in favor of entering the war, on the side of Britain. The war propaganda campaign of Bernays and Lippman produced such an intense anti-German hysteria as to permanently impress America’s governmental elites with the potential of large-scale propaganda to control public opinion. Edward Bernays advised US presidents from Woodrow Wilson to Eisenhower and served numerous corporations and business associations. This was the start of the mass media and governmental psychological manipulation programs which has come to covertly dominate today’s world. One of Bernays biggest fans was Hitler’s propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, a fact about which Bernays bragged proudly.  A common pattern used repeatedly by Bernays was to turn a harmless entity into a fearsome enemy through lies and manufactured news items. Then use the “threat” to justify attacking the entity.
Edward Bernays coined the terms “group mind” and “engineering consent”, important concepts in practical propaganda work. Bernays said in his 1928 book Propaganda, that; “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in a democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. He further states that; “If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it.” The current public relations industry is a direct outgrowth of Bernays’ work and his method of mass psychological manipulation is also still currently used by the United States government.
 
Today, in carrying out many of its social-engineering agendas, the United States Government has acquired a long history of conducting extensive campaigns of strategic psychological operations [based upon the works of Benays] through the national media to influence the perception and climate of the nation towards its governmental objectives. Because the nineteen sixties were a period of massive black rebellion and unrest that eroded the American global image, increasingly placed the nation’s peace and stability in dire jeopardy, caused the U.S. Government to fear the uprising of a violent Black revolution, and perhaps most particularly because the nations top sociologist and psychologist knew that those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. This quite logically necessitated, as a means of restoring its stability, that the U.S. Government instate these same proven methods of mass psychological manipulation against its entire Black population.                                                The U.S. Government now secretly deliberately disseminates false deplorably racially devaluing statistics and propaganda about its Black population that are deliberately designed to adversely manipulate and shape the minds and collective consciousness of its African American population– corrupting African Americans sense of unity, cohesion, and reason — and facilitates a consensual national environment  of where in which its Black population is more easily divided, exploited and ultimately suppressed.  When most people hear the term of psychological manipulation they usually think in terms of the classic “conspiracy theory” that refers to overt mind control such as mind altering drugs with carefully hypnotic programming. However, the real and true dangers are Bernays well proven methods of affecting the unconscious mind by using deception, and psychological manipulation. It is neither magical nor mystical, but a process that involves a set of basic social psychological principles.  The constant relentless bombardment with deplorably negative images of themselves that of which African Americans are so inundated with, through a white controlled media, is a very carefully and deliberately designed psychological conditioning program. Its unrelenting daily assault on the Black psyche is designed to corrupt African Americans’ sense of racial unity and cohesion, mold the character of self-hatred, engender self-doubt, self-loathing, and distrust among their group while insinuating that Blacks admire, respect, and trust only Whites.                                                                                                                This method of psychological manipulation works by affecting the unconscious mind through deception. It uses the psychology of deceit to adversely affect the recipient group in terms of their behavior. Here is a simplified example of how this is being implemented against African Americans.  Let us, for example, imagine that a crew of people was aboard their own massive ship and that this ship was being shadowed by another neighboring ship that was constantly broadcasting derogatory messages to the first group. Such messages as that their ship was lesser, smaller, not seaworthy, perhaps slowly sinking or that their crew was incompetent and was planning a mutiny.  With time, the group receiving the negative messages, being unable to refute or to confirm these derogatory messages and deficiencies will grow weary and paranoid of the negative messages and will eventually comes to accept these negative assessments of themselves. The perception created by the taunting now unconsciously influences how the taunted group perceives themselves, subsequently causing them to become distrustful of themselves, doubting themselves, hating themselves and, eventually, fighting among themselves. The taunted group may even become so besieged by deep feelings of inadequacy that they may even jump into the sea and attempt to swim towards the taunting ship now believing it to be superior to their own ship even if their own ship was in fact better. The basis of this concept of mind manipulation is that the human being’s most critical aspect is the mind and it works by affecting the mind through deception. It uses the psychology of deceit to adversely affect the recipient group in terms of their behavior                                                Within a real life setting this mortifying psychosocial treatment is precisely what is being deliberately done to African Americans. Where of which they are constantly bombarded and inundated by deplorably negative imagery’s of themselves through a totally white controlled media outlets that intentionally subjected them to seeing only the fraudulently worst in themselves.             This is done through an immense campaign of false derogatory misinformation and false negative media reports and statistics that are created by U.S. governmental agencies and then leaked to its collaborators in the news media, which either knowingly or unknowingly carry the stories as their own. These false information about African Americans are then disseminated unrelentingly everywhere; it is deliberately perpetuated through news releases in magazine articles, radio, television, press releases, documentaries, and false census reports perpetuating and framing the myth of Whites’ racial, moral, and ethical superiority over its Black population. However, the weapon is not in how the message is carried, but is instead within the messages that it carries and how these messages detrimentally affects the Black population at large.                                                                                                                     The over representation of Black crimes and grossly exaggerated statistics of Black on Black violence within this psychosocial program are intentionally designed to create fear, hatred, and distrust thus molding the character of disunity and self-hatred among the Black community.  [Black’s own personal negative experiences and interactions with their fellow Blacks then merely confirm the program’s perpetuated message that it is they that are their own worst enemies]. The ultimate goal of this governmental psychosocial treatment of African Americans is to destroy the Black unity and cohesion that was historically the cornerstone of civil rights gains and that was a crucial factor of the survival of African Americans through more than four hundred years of racial oppression. [Logic dictates that given that unity and cohesion among African Americans was responsible for the demise of White America’s past system of blatant, institutionalized racism, then destroying this unity would be an essential objective of this psychological manipulation program.]                                                                                         All African Americans have experienced the burden of this system of applied psychological conditioning, some more severely than others have.  It is experienced every time we [Blacks] read a newspaper, watch the evening news, listen to a radio report, enter a classroom and read its racially biased textbooks.  To the detriment of many African Americans, it has been an extremely effective. It has successfully conditioned many African Americans to accept the dominance of Whites and white institutions over their lives by misleading them to believe that they are, themselves, their own worst enemies, therefore engendering an aberration of internalized self contempt that pulverizes Black unity and halts Black upward mobility. It is at the root of both the profound division and self hatred now afflicting so many Black Americans and is at the heart of internalized feelings of superiority that many whites possess.
And while many African Americans have successfully navigated through this psychologically mortifying mine field and have gone on to lead successful, productive lives, for far too many this immense devaluation can seem inescapable and tragically, over time, many begin to accept subconsciously and painfully the negative portrayals of themselves. Many also become discouraged by the acceptance that their society is also preconditioned to see the worst in them and that, therefore, if they were ever to gain acceptance, if it is to be won at all, that success would be hard won. This in turn manifests negative internalized psychological pain and distress within many African Americans that can take many forms. In fact, this governmental mortifying psychosocial treatment of African Americans may be the most aggravating, if not core, factor of the national phenomenon of self hatred; loss of educational aspirations; loss of unity, cohesion and racial pride; and fragile psyches of many African Americans today. It is in fact so fundamentally detrimental to the Black human condition and psyche that it may even affect the extent to which many African Americans realize their full human potential. This type of psychological manipulation program has also been proven very effective in rapidly destroying a group’s ethical and moral values and engendering negative cultural norms with regard to violence, brutality, and even murder. All people, to some degree, are products of cultural conditions and their worldviews operate outside of their level of consciousness. Therefore, no group can be preconditioned to see only the worst in themselves and not exhibit some degree of negative psychological impact.
Not only does this massive governmental psychological manipulation campaign negatively impacts Blacks self perceptions,  it also ensures that the masses of African Americans remains the most racially devalued and most economical exploited and suppressed group in America.  The media’s constantly depicted deplorable imagery of Black Americans is designed also to create a shift of victimization that changes the root problem of racism in America to be due to Black’s behavior rather than White’s proclivity for racism. Therefore insinuates that America would be a better society as a whole if African Americans were gone, thus engendering increasingly prejudiced distorted perceptions and acrimonious beliefs about African Americans that are designed to makes the nation and the entire world insensitive to their plight, tranquilizes efforts on their behalf, lessens pressure for social change on their behalf, and makes any serious criticism of White racism almost impossible today. Therefore fostering a national setting of where in which Blacks are more easily exploited and ultimately consensually suppressed. Moreover, some studies have shown that this shift of victimization now reflects increasingly acrimonious beliefs and prejudiced perceptions about and against African Americans that are arguably stronger today than they were after emancipation. This governmental psychological conditioning program is what stripped African Americans of the national and international support that was acquired during the 1960’s civil rights struggles.
 This campaign also creates a false justification for the legal system’s mistreatment of African Americans wherein they are disproportionately incarcerated, given stiffer sentences, and are more likely than other racial groups to be treated brutally, beaten, and fired upon by police officers while they are unarmed. These injustices now goes ignored because the perception has subconsciously become that it’s all now justified.  When contempt of Blacks is made to appear to be justifiable, it is the fiercest and most effective type of racism because its witnesses, bystanders, and even world audiences will sit by idly allowing African Americans to be brutally mistreated under the belief that it is justified.  This is what Dr. Edward Bernays referred to as “engineering consent”.
Its effects are also manifested in ideas, education, governmental policies, economic stratification, social segregation, housing markets, hiring and promotion practices, psychological issues, and minority access to a variety of social services and opportunity. This societal engineering also today affects attitudes that when enacted through governmental policies, laws, and other legislation actions, serve to ensure that African Americans will not advance.  Through the usage of mass psychological manipulation White America’s methods of institutionalized racism has been secretly modified into a more sophisticated and stealthy design. Unfortunately to the detriment of many African Americans this modern system of deploying white racism has been very proficient.
 
The notion that the U.S government has reincarnated its method of suppressing its Black population is patently very plausible and historically accurate. Because the practices of reinventing methods of suppressing sub-groups is not at all uncommon.  The records of history show that the reincarnating of suppressive methods into forms more acceptable to the changing times is a common practice.  In examining the record of history, we often find that, among those mighty empires which were ruthless, greedy, and racist, those behaviors did not decay quickly even after the fall of the empire.  These patterns of racism were often reincarnated into forms more acceptable to the changing times. History acknowledges that this has been a common practice of the United States government. As seen after the abolishment of slavery wherein its methods of using racist, oppressive treatment of its Black population was reincarnated into Jim Crow inequalities maintained by regional authorities and condoned by the U.S. Government.   A Governmental condoning that facilitated a national environment of where in which African Americans were brutally mistreated, lynched and were made victims of many devious strategies and methods that prevented them from becoming registered voters.  And let us not forget the horrific Tuskegee experiments or of the CIA’s involvement in flooding the Black communities of Los Angeles with drugs and high powered weaponry. A quick review of history easily affirms the reality that white America does have a tradition of resistant against the advancement of its Black population. It also reminds us that the White race’s innate proclivity for racism, control, and dominance is much too deeply ingrained for them to just merely give up their practices of implementing suppressive methods over its African American population. 
 
 This concept of the U.S government using psychological warfare through the national media as a weapon to influence and control its Black population is not at all ridiculous.  Psychological Warfare is a real, well-proven and commonly used method of warfare that exceeds the territorial limits of conventional warfare to penetrate the proposed target. Today, the U.S. government, like many other developed nations, conducts planned campaigns of extensive, strategic psychological manipulation operations through the national media to influence the perception and climate of the nation towards the attainment of its governmental objectives.  These psychological manipulating programs began in a military setting, but governmental and societal elites eventually realized that it could be useful for totally controlling society.  Therefore, it evolved from military application against foreign enemies to the domestic control of society. 
 These systems of mass psychological manipulation were first perfected by members of the U.S. military and then advances in these studies resulted in it then being turned over to the intelligence sectors for other applications. The intelligence sector, in turn, deliberately and successfully undertook to have these same manipulative conditioning programs applied to influence the climate of the nation in favor of its governmental objectives. Participating federal agencies may include the National Security Council, the Office of Strategic Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations.  When these manipulative programs are deployed against foreign entities they are referred to by governmental and military officials as “psychological warfare” when they’re executed domestically to influence the climate of the nation they are then referred to as Psychological operations (PSYOPs) rather than as a “Warfare”. The U.S. Government has an extensive history of using the national media to psychologically manipulate and influence public opinion. It is indeed a very common governmental practice.
What is more, this contention that the U.S government is using a mass psychological manipulation program to influence and control its Black population is totally consistent with White America’s past tradition of resistant against Black advancement.  Moreover, it was the next logical choice because this method covertly provides the U.S. government a stealthier, socially acceptable means to both control and influence the national climate and engender personal psychological feelings among its Black population that meet its objectives of maintaining its white dominance.  
This isn’t to say that all things on TV are geared towards psychological manipulation. They’re not. But we cannot ignore the fact the present immense campaigns of deplorably negative media portrayal of African Americans that causes feelings of self loathing among many Blacks, lessens pressure for social change on their behalf and facilitates a national consensual environment of where in which Blacks mistreatment  appears justified, is totally consistent with Dr. Edward Bernays commonly used methods of turning a harmless group into a fearsome enemy through lies and manufactured news items then using the false created image to justify mistreating and attacking the group. It is essential that we Black people all do our parts to disseminate this information and implement plans to counter this real life Black Matrix.
 
 THE BLACK MATRIX: The Modern Mental & Social Suppression of African Americans Under National Interest (c) 2006, 2008 By Franklin Jones aka Thanubian. For more info visit www.divineblacktruth.org
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Published by African Press International – API

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Bouteflika hails ” stability and safety” in Morocco

Posted by africanpress on July 31, 2008

Algerian President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, on Wednesday congratulated King Mohammed VI on the occasion of his nine-year reign, and hailed the “stability and security” in Morocco.

The “Progress” made in Morocco in “many areas have enabled him to live in security and enable him to accompany the rapid transformation in the modern era,” President Bouteflika wrote to King Mohammed VI who was enthroned on 30 July, 1999.

President Bouteflika also praised the “devotion” of the Moroccan King “to “materialise the Moroccan peoples’ hopes and aspirations.

The achievements made in Morocco were “consolidated by your Majesty through new works that continue generating fruits each year”, the Algerian leader wrote.

He expressed his “firm determination” to work towards “strengthening the cordial and fraternal ties that unite our two peoples”.

Relations between the two Maghreb countries are struggling to take off amidst a backdrop of the 33-year Sahara separatist crisis which Algeria has been strategic ally to.

The land borders between the two countries have been closed since 1994 after the terrorist attacks perpetrated by Algerian nationals in Marrakech (central Morocco).

In March, Morocco “vainly” called on Algeria to reopen of their common borders.

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API/APA

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Museveni woos Egyptian investors as Mubarak visits Uganda

Posted by africanpress on July 31, 2008

President Yoweri Museveni has called on Egyptian businesspeople to direct investment in Uganda’s agro-based and food processing sectors.

During a state luncheon for visiting Egyptian president Hosny Mubarak at State House, Entebbe on Wednesday, Museveni in spite of the prevailing high food prices, Uganda remains a big food producer.

“We have made progress in supplying the big markets in the US, China and India,” and enticed Mubarak to encourage Egyptians to take advantage of the numerous investment opportunities.

On his part, Mubarak described said:”I am confident that we shall do a lot for the good of the people of the two countries.”

Mubarak earlier received a 21-gun salute, inspected a guard of honour and signed the visitors’ book during his day-long visit on his way from South Africa.

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API/APA

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President Mubarak returns to Egypt after African tour

Posted by africanpress on July 31, 2008

President Hosni Mubarak returned To Egypt late on Wednesday from Uganda at the end of his three-day African tour which took him to South Africa and Uganda.

In Uganda, the second leg of his tour, President Mubarak met with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and discussed ways to promote bilateral relations especially in the economic field, trade and implementation of joint projects between Egypt and Uganda in the agricultural sector to face the crisis of rising food prices.

In a joint communiqué issued at the end of Mubarak’s visit to Uganda, the two leaders expressed concern about the unprecedented move by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor to request an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

They voiced support for all decisions and stands taken during the recent African Union summit, the AU Peace and Security Council and the Arab League Ministerial Council, affirming their intention to work to realize peace in Sudan, especially in Darfur.

They also underlined their support for the presence of the hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, demanding for acceleration of the pace of the deployment of the peacekeepers across the region.

The two leaders affirmed their support to the Nile Basin Initiative and pledged to continue cooperation within its framework to reach an agreement between the Nile basin countries on the best ways to boost cooperation among them.

During his earlier visit to South Africa, Mubarak held discussions with President Thabo Mbeki on regional and international issues of common concern, cooperation in the development of Africa and agree to push forward bilateral relations bwteen their two countries in various fields.

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API/APA

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The Fritzl case – holding daughter “windowless celled-hostage” for 24 years

Posted by africanpress on July 31, 2008

Elisabeth Fritzl Begins Testimony

Posted by shadmia on July 14, 2008

Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, who was imprisoned for 24 years by her father, Josef Fritzl, and bore him 7 children; has been given medical clearance to begin testifying about her ordeal. She has already begun to answer questions and will continue to do so in the coming week. Elisabeth has said that she never wants to see her father ever again ..not even at trial. So in order to accommodate her wishes, all of her testimony is being videotaped so that she will not be forced to confront him in court.

The trial of Josef Fritzl is scheduled to begin later this year in front of one of Austria’s most senior female judges, Andrea Humer, 48, who is considered to be an expert in sex crimes. However,  under Austrian law, Elisabeth is being questioned by the investigative judge Christoph Bauer, and not the trial judge Andrea Humer. Neither the contents of the questioning nor the upcoming trial will be open to the public.

The actual questioning of Elisabeth is taking place in two separate rooms of the same building via a video link up. In one room will be Elisabeth and her lawyer Eva Plaz, along with judge Christoph Bauer. In the other room will be state prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser and Josef Fritzl’s lawyer Rudolf Mayer. Defense lawyer Rudolf Mayer is allowed to ask questions, but his client, Josef Fritzl, who is also entitled to attend, has waived his right to be there. Rudolf Mayer, said: My client will definitely not attend the questioning. Elisabeth’s two oldest children, who spent their entire lives in the cellar, Kerstin, 19, and Stefan,18, will also be questioned by the court as soon as doctors give their approval. Josef Fritzl’s wife Rosemarie, 68, is also expected to be questioned.

In what may be a surprising development, it turns out that Austrian law, does not allow for cumulative convictions. This means that even if Josef Fritzl is convicted of multiple crimes he will only effectively serve one punishment, for the offense that carries the longest prison sentence.

Fritzl is facing potential charges of manslaughter for the newborn that died, as well as rape, coercion, deprivation of freedom and incest. But prosecutors told The Times that since the baby died in 1997, the manslaughter charges would be extremely difficult to prove. Even the rape charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, could be impossible to probe because of a lack of forensic evidence.

What this means is that the only charge that is certain to be proved in court is deprivation of freedom, a crime that can only be punished with ten years in prison under Austrian law. Josef Fritzl could be a free man after only 10 years in prison.

However, here’s the irony in the situation .. Josef Fritzl, who incarcerated his own daughter in a windowless dungeon for 24 years, has admitted that he can’t stand being locked up after only two months in prison. In spite of his fear of being beaten up or killed by other inmates, who routinely target child sex offenders, Josef has demanded his right to 30 minutes exercise outside every day. At night fellow inmates bang on the walls and shout: Come on out Satan, we want to play.

Fritzl, who remains held in pretrial detention in St. Poelten, about 50 miles west of Vienna, now has half-hour walks, protected from other inmates by a close guard of prison officers. Fritzl even told prison guards he enjoyed having the sun on his face during his walks.

Mr Fritzl is accommodated in a cell for two and recently he has made use of his right to go outside for half an hour per day, the Telegraph quoted prison spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Erich Huber-Guensthofer, as saying.

A source is quoted as saying: He usually sits there watching television all day, especially news programs about him. He’s terrified that someone will attack him or try to kill him.

In encouraging news about the Fritzl family; Lisa, 15, one of Elisabeth’s daughters, was sneaked out of the compound where the family has been staying to attend a summer camp. It is reported that the girl enjoyed four carefree days of outdoor fun under an assumed name with 4,000 other young campers. Armin Blutsch, who commands Amstetten’s fire brigade, and Hans-Heinz Lenze, a local official, said camp organizers took it upon themselves to include her after she said it was her ardent desire.

Other family members also have ventured, always in disguise, from the Amstetten-Mauer psychiatric clinic where they have been recovering to make day trips, including swimming outings. The clinic however remains under police guard to shut out the paparazzi who have laid siege to the building in an effort to photograph Elisabeth and her children.

Fortunately, everything is going very well, said Christoph Herbst, a lawyer representing the victims. He said they were spending some time each day trying to answer the hundreds of letters sent by well-wishers from around the world.

For the complete story of Elisabeth Fritzl and her ordeal at the hands of her father click the following link for a 5-part video presentation of The Josef Fritzl Story.

 

API: Source : Shadmias world

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We are stunned that the kids we sent to school to learn have turned into stone-throwing, book-hating thugs with the capacity to wreck untold havoc on property and their own future.

Posted by africanpress on July 31, 2008

The rolling strikes in Kenyan secondary schools have caught most of us by surprise. We are stunned that the kids we sent to school to learn have turned into stone-throwing, book-hating thugs with the capacity to wreck untold havoc on property and their own future. We’ve watched with dismay as boys and girls have gone on the rampage ostensibly to avoid doing some exams called MOCK. And since the start of this shameful orgy, we’ve all watched as politicians, from the president down, have peddled prescriptions that serve no useful purpose except to remind us of their infuriating lack of depth.
 
At this point it has become clear that the strikes rolling through the undulating landscape of the Kenyan secondary school has absolutely nothing to do with MOCKs. The only mock-thing about them is that they are mocking us for having such a limited understanding of what goes on in the mind of our youths. Lest we forget the example we have set to them, I want us to look ourselves in the mirror and see what those boys and girls have seen in us. Are you ready?
 
The Mirror:
 
1. Lack of Opportunity. These kids have grown up in a nation where they’ve been repeatedly told that opportunity comes to those who stick it out in school, work hard and play by the rules. These are lofty ideals that sound noble even to the youth. Except that when they look around them, what they see is their brothers and sisters who’ve worked had, graduated from universities across Kenya, but are now reduced to roasting corn/maize at the bus stops and marketplaces in the nation. Some have even seen their parents fired and out of work for months. In the face of such reality, do we expect the kids not to despair?
 
2. Tribalism. Since the sixties, our nation has struggled to eradicate this very negative vice. We have failed. And now, just when things started looking up, Kenya has regressed into one of the worst periods as far as tribal relations in the country go. As the boys and girls in our schools look at the picture we’ve presented to them, what they see is a father in Kisumu cursing that Jarabuon father in Kiambu. They see the mother in Nyeri calling the mother in Tinderet something ugly. They see their brothers and sisters bite their lip in anger every time some one from a different tribe is on TV saying something. Hate, hate, hate. That’s what we’ve given them. These are the kids we’ve sent to school to study next to that boy or girl they heard being cursed and called ugly words at home. And we wonder why they mock us?
 
3. Corruption. Most of these kids came of age in the days of John Githongo. When they read the newspapers, what they see is stories about massive corruption in the country, and the vice is perpetrated by men who should be the example. When they read about Anglo-Leasing, Goldenberg, Turkwell, Ken-Ren and now the Grand Regency, what these kids see is a society where the rules don’t matter. What seems to matter is how high up you can go by literally looting from Kenyans…and this only when you are well connected. Now, how many of these kids are well connected? Do we put ourselves in their shoes and wonder how they see Kenya? Do we?
 
4. A Culture of Impunity. Mta Do? Folks, whether we like it or not, the kids have only us to learn from. It would be nice if they followed the example of the penguins, which form binding communities where the young are cared for and trained to be effective adults. Unfortunately for our youth, what they have as an example is a president who blatantly steals an election and asks Mta Do? They have a police commissioner who sits at the Waki Commission and proclaims that he’d do everything exactly the way he did it if what happened in January happened today. Does he remember that people were killed by his forces? Does he recall the shoot-to-kill order by Grace kahindi? What should the kids learn from a man like that? And how about the fact that Kiraitu Muriungi is a minister after the Githongo tapes? Look, what the kids learn from this is simple. Impunity pays. Can we blame them when they get discouraged? Or when they think they can get away with burning dorms and classes?
 
5. Violence. Unfortunately, when confronted with a deaf and blind leadership, most societies resort to violence. That’s what we did after the elections were stolen. But have we stopped to wonder what the kids saw when Kenya went through that meltdown? In those classrooms where we sent those kids, there were some of them who saw a friend killed, a father hacked to death, a sister burnt alive, a brother kill someone, a child left hungry, a home burnt. The list is endless. Yes, those kids saw a lot. But again, have they been given any counselling about the trauma they faced? At what point are we going to realize that our continued inability to do things right is creating a society of future delinquents and felons? Through our violent ways, we’ve legitimized violence as a means of resolving issues. So why are we stunned when the kids do what they’ve learnt from us? They are looking at our condemnation of them now and saying…what a bunch of hypocrites!
 
Fellow Countrymen, that’s what the kids see when they look at us. We stink, don’t we? But what makes it worse is that we now sit in judgement of them. We must take away their cell phones, we say. We must cane them. We must charge them in a court of law. Their parents must pay. We must expel the ringleaders. This is all bullshit. What must be done is for us adults to start acting our age, and be a good example to these kids. But that is a long-term solution. Here is what can be done to have an immediate impact in schools.
 
Prescription:
 
I. Let’s avail books in schools in equal measure throughout the country. When I went to Kanga High School in the late eighties, the late Hezekiah Oyugi made sure our school was well stocked with books, excellent teachers and even good food. I turned around and looked at neighbouring schools like Rakwaro and Iterio and wondered how the kids in those other schools were expected to compete with us. It seemed unfair. If the government implemented a blind policy that treated all schools equally, in terms of resource allocation, the kids might actually fall in love with the MOCKs. What’s keeping us from doing this?
 
II. Parents must start being there for their children. Admittedly, it’s hard to be an effective parent when you must struggle to even put food on the table. Still, parents must be proactive in their children’s lives. A father must teach his son how to be a God-fearing, law-abiding citizen. A mother must teach her daughter how to take good care of herself and handle herself with dignity. We must all remember that what society teaches our children is in addition to a foundation of learning started at home.
 
III. Family Planning must be brought back as a means of managing our resources and enhancing effective parenting. Whatever it takes, we need to work toward a society where we bring into this world only that number of children we can take good care of. It doesn’t make much sense to have a third child when one can’t take care of the first one, does it?
 
IV. We can make the MOCKs a school-specific issue. Let Kanga High School carry on its MOCKs. Let Lenana carry on its. And let Chebwai carry on its. That way the pressure to compete bigger schools right now, at a time when those bigger schools are more well endowed and resourced, is eliminated.
 
V. Finally, let me suggest that a society where God is not worshipped with the humility and reverence He deserves is hurtling toward self-destruction. There was once a time when the name of God, uttered in our presence, made each of us sit and take notice. Today God is just another name. I pray that we can focus the attention of our youths on God once again. We must do all we can to make God relevant. The best thing that can and will ever be said about the youth in Kenya is…They know Jesus christ as their personal saviour. That’s when Kenya will have arrived.
 
This is not a conclusive or exhaustive prescription by any means, it’s just my way of weeping for a nation that must turn a corner right now, or watch as we all hurtle toward a revolution!
 
For Love of Country,   
 
Sam O. Okello
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API

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Egypt, South Africa support 12-month reprieve for Bashir

Posted by africanpress on July 31, 2008

By Editor: Du Guodong

JOHANNESBURG, July 29 (Xinhua) — Egypt and South Africa Tuesday expressed their support for a 12-month delay of indictment on Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC), the South African Press Association reported.

    ”We are both making efforts to find a solution and we are trying hard,” said visiting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at a joint press conference after holding talks with his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki.

    ”The case could perhaps be postponed for about 12 months during which something could happen to decrease the tension,” he was quoted as saying during his first official visit to South Africa.

    Mbeki said the indictment “does not help” efforts to move forward the peace process between north and south Sudan, nor in the Darfur region.

    The UN Security Council on Monday stood divided over a proposal to suspend the ICC’s indictment of Bashir.

    The 15-member body held closed-door consultations Monday on a Britain-sponsored draft resolution seeking to extend the mandate of the UN-African Union peacekeeping operation in Darfur (UNAMID),which expires Thursday.

    The council’s president for the month, Vietnam’s UN ambassador Le Luong Minh, told reporters that council members had agreed on “many elements of the draft”, including the necessity for a mandate extension and measures to ensure the mission’s effective operation.

    South Africa and Libya tried to insert into the draft a paragraph calling for suspension of the ICC indictment, a move that was opposed by some Western nations, including the United States and France, diplomats said.

    Some members sought to include such a paragraph “in order to avoid any negative impact on the operations of UNAMID and on the political process in Darfur and in the Sudan,” Le said.

    He said Vietnam shared concerns that such an indictment might have a negative impact on the resolution of the Darfur issue.

    ”The council will continue consultations on this draft resolution, with the hope that agreement can be achieved in time for a decision on extension of UNAMID’s mandate,” he added.

    The chief prosecutor of the Hague-based ICC Luis Moreno-Ocampo formally requested an arrest warrant on July 14 against Bashir for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.

    Speaking to reporters, U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said it would be “premature” for the Security Council to suspend the ICC indictment.

    ”To protect one person, by suspending the application of what Mr. Ocampo has proposed at this point is premature,” Khalilzad said.

    Last week, Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the council may consider suspending the ICC indictment.

    Churkin said Article 16 of the ICC statute “does give the Security Council of the United Nations certain political responsibilities. It is a duty of the Security Council.”

    Under Article 16 of the ICC statute, the Security Council can pass a resolution to defer an ICC investigation or prosecution fora period of 12 months. Such a resolution can also be renewed.

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API/Source.chinaview

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