GIANT JESUS STATUE ARISES in SYRIAN WAR

In midst of Syrian war, giant Jesus statue arises

Associated Press

9:07 pm | Saturday, November 2nd, 2013

This Oct. 14, 2013 photo provided by the St. Paul’s and St. George’s Foundation shows workers preparing to install a statue of Jesus on Mount Sednaya, Syria. In the midst of a civil war rife with sectarianism, a 12.3-meter (40-foot) tall, bronze statue of Jesus has gone up on a Syrian mountain, apparently under cover of a truce among three factions – Syrian forces, rebels and gunmen in the Christian town of Sednaya. AP/Samir El-Gadban, St. Paul’s and St. George’s Foundation

BEIRUT — In the midst of a conflict rife with sectarianism, a giant bronze statue of Jesus has gone up on a Syrian mountain, apparently under cover of a truce among three factions in the country’s civil war.
Jesus stands, arms outstretched, on the Cherubim mountain, overlooking a route pilgrims took from Constantinople to Jerusalem in ancient times. The statue is 12.3 meters (40 feet) tall and stands on a base that brings its height to 32 meters (105 feet), organizers of the project estimate.
That the statue made it to Syria and went up without incident on Oct. 14 is remarkable. The project took eight years and was set back by the civil war that followed the March 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad.
Christians and other minorities are all targets in the conflict, and the statue’s safety is by no means guaranteed. It stands among villages where some fighters, linked to al-Qaida, have little sympathy for Christians.
So why put up a giant statue of Christ in the midst of such setbacks and so much danger?
Because “Jesus would have done it,” organizer Samir al-Ghadban quoted a Christian church leader as telling him.
The backers’ success in overcoming the obstacles shows the complexity of civil war, where sometimes despite the atrocities the warring parties can reach short-term truces.
Al-Ghadban said that the main armed groups in the area — Syrian government forces, rebels and the local militias of Sednaya, the Christian town near the statue site — halted fire while organizers set up the statue, without providing further details.
Rebels and government forces occasionally agree to cease-fires to allow the movement of goods. They typically do not admit to having truces because that would tacitly acknowledge their enemies.
It took three days to raise the statue. Photos provided by organizers show it being hauled in two pieces by farm tractors, then lifted into place by a crane. Smaller statues of Adam and Eve stand nearby.
The project, called “I Have Come to Save the World,” is run by the London-based St. Paul and St. George Foundation, which Al-Ghadban directs. It was previously named the Gavrilov Foundation, after a Russian businessman, Yuri Gavrilov.
Documents filed with Britain’s Charity Commission describe it as supporting “deserving projects in the field of science and animal welfare” in England and Russia, but the commission’s accounts show it spent less than 250 pounds ($400) in the last four years.
Al-Ghadban said most of the financing came from private donors, but did not supply further details.
Russians have been a driving force behind the project — not surprising given that the Kremlin is embattled Assad’s chief ally, and the Orthodox churches in Russia and Syria have close ties. Al-Ghadban, who spoke to The Associated Press from Moscow, is Syrian-Russian and lives in both countries.
Al-Ghadban said he began the project in 2005, hoping the statue would be an inspiration for Syria’s Christians. He said he was inspired by Rio de Janeiro’s towering Christ the Redeemer statue.
He commissioned an Armenian sculptor, but progress was slow.
By 2012, the statue was ready, but Syria was aflame, causing the project’s biggest delay, al-Ghadban said.
Majority Sunni Muslims dominate the revolt, and jihadists make up some of the strongest fighting groups. Other Muslim groups along with the 10-percent Christian minority have stood largely with Assad’s government, or remained neutral, sometimes arming themselves to keep hard-line rebels out of their communities.
Churches have been vandalized, priests abducted. Last month the extremists overran Maaloula, a Christian-majority town so old that some of its people still speak a language from Jesus’ time.
On Tuesday a militant Muslim cleric, Sheik Omar al-Gharba, posted a YouTube video of himself smashing a blue-and-white statue of the Virgin Mary.
Al-Ghadban and the project’s most important backer, Gavrilov, weighed canceling it.
They consulted Syria’s Greek Orthodox Patriarch John Yaziji. It was he who told them “Jesus would have done it.”
They began shipping the statue from Armenia to Lebanon. In August, while it was en route, Gavrilov, 49, suffered a fatal heart attack, al-Ghadban said.
Eventually the statue reached Syria.
“It was a miracle,” al-Ghadban said. “Nobody who participated in this expected this to succeed.”

THIS IS HUMILIATION BY M23

DR Congo rebels accused of atrocities

Government soldiers say bodies were found in freshly dug graves after rebels retreated from base near Ugandan border. Last Modified: 03 Nov 2013 05:05

Rebels fleeing advancing government soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been accused of committing atrocities as they retreated. Government troops told Al Jazeera on Saturday that they had discovered freshly dug graves in the last stronghold of the M23 rebels, close to the Ugandan border. Al Jazeera's Malcolm Webb was shown one such grave at the Rumangabo base and said it looked like a man buried there had been executed. "It looks like he was tied up, with his arms behind his back, and his legs tied together, at the moment he died," he said. "There’s some blood coming from his head, so it really looks like he was executed." Some fighters who surrendered after government forces moved in said the rebel group killed its prisoners before it left. Al Jazeera talks to Ambassador Herman Cohen People living in the villages around the base told Al Jazeera that living conditions under the rebels had been harsh. "They would beat people for nothing, and they would arrest people and make them disappear," one woman said. On Friday, the government urged rebel fighters who had fled into the hills to surrender and avoid a final offensive to wipe them out. About 200 die-hard fighters were holed up in the mountains, at an altitude of about 2,000 metres, near the eastern town of Bunagana, said government spokesman Lambert Mende. After more than a week of heavy fighting around the town in the lush green, hilly region bordering Uganda, army spokesman Olivier Amuli told AFP the rebels were "caught in a vice". "We are giving a final chance to all M23 fighters to surrender," Amuli said, as the army carried out operations in a bid to put an end to an armed uprising in the restive North Kivu province. Thousands fleeing UN patrols on Friday streamed through on the road leading to Bunagana, a small town without electricity or running water, secured by about 100 army troops. About 5,000 people have taken refuge across the border in Uganda since the beginning of the week according to the UN's refugee agency. Bunagana mayor Leon Bitegeka said "streams of people continue to cross into Uganda" due to the heavy fighting which began eight days ago. The M23 are mainly ethnic Tutsis and were once part of the country's army, but mutinied last year, accusing the government of not honouring a 2009 peace deal. The fighting stopped earlier this year, but restarted last month after peace talks broke down. The world's largest UN peacekeeping force is in Congo, helping the government fight M23. Rwanda and Uganda have been accused by Congo's government and the UN of backing the rebel forces, but have repeatedly denied the allegations. While no death tolls from the latest fighting have been released, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was treating many wounded and had volunteers collecting and burying the dead.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

LOOK WHAT BOKO-HARAM DID.....Jihadists vs christians

Many killed in Nigeria church stampede

Officials search for cause of stampede at overnight vigil that killed at least 24 people in country's east. Last Modified: 03 Nov 2013 13:48

At least 24 people have been killed and many more injured in a stampede at the end of a church vigil in eastern Nigeria, officials said. Nineteen women were amongst the dead at the stampede in the Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Uke, Anambra state on Saturday, where around 100,000 worshippers had gathered for All Souls Day, Red Cross spokesman Peter Kachi told Reuters news agency by telephone. Authorities did not know what caused the stampede which happened as followers celebrated an overnight vigil to mark All Saints' Day. "There were too many people and the place was so overcrowded," Osmond Okoli, who narrowly survived being squashed in the crowd, told local station Channels TV. "We were too compacted so people fell and they were being pushed on us and then we all began to shout from the ground." The event had been attended hours earlier by the local Anambra state governor, Peter Obi. He later returned to the scene and visited the injured in hospital, promising to set up an inquiry to establish the cause of the accident. Anambra is about 300km south of Abuja. Religious services gathering several hundred thousand people are common in Nigeria, a country of around 170 million split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims.

Source: Agencies

DRC's M23 rebels declare ceasefire

Rebel leader urges all fighters to immediately end hostilities as the country's army takes over their last stronghold. Last Modified: 03 Nov 2013 15:10

Democratic Republic of Congo's M23 rebels have declared a ceasefire after a 20-month rebellion in North Kivu province to allow peace talks with the government to advance. Bertrand Bisimwa, leader of the M23 rebel group, urged all fighters on Sunday to "immediately end hostilities" with the government troops. "We call on the facilitator of the Kampala peace talks to immediately put in place a mechanism to monitor the ceasefire," Bisimwa said in statement. There was no immediate reaction from the army. The declaration of the truce came on the day when the government troops said it launched a new offensive against rebel fighters who fled to the hills around Congo's border with Uganda and Rwanda after being ousted from Bunaguna, their last stronghold. On Friday, Uganda, which has led regional attempts to end the most serious rebellion since Congo's last war ended a decade ago, called for both sides to stop fighting. Heavy fighting has eased, but the army said it shelled rebel positions on Saturday to encourage fighters to surrender. Congo's government has dispatched senior negotiators to talks in Uganda, but the army is keen to finish off the rebellion, the last in a series of uprisings led by Congolese Tutsis in the mineral-rich but unstable east.

Source: Agencie

THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD

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  Merkel and Putin: Powerful but they don't get along very well (Photo: Bundesregierung/Steins

Forbes: Putin and Merkel most powerful people in the world

31.10.13 @ 09:33

Berlin - Russian leader Vladimir Putin has trumped US President Barack Obama as the most powerful man in the world, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel retains her title as the world's most powerful woman, according to a yearly ranking published by Forbes magazine on Wednesday (30 October).
With his signature healthcare legislation under fire, allies outraged over spying and a barely-averted default on US debt, Obama can no longer be seen as the most powerful man in the world, Forbes editors write.
"It appears that President Obama's lame duck period has set in earlier than usual for a two-term president, causing him to drop one notch from the No. 1 spot," they add.
Meanwhile, the ex-KGB strongman is solidifying his power in Russia "and anyone watching the chess match over Syria has a clear idea of the shift in the power towards Putin on the global stage."
With the possibility of prolonging his presidency until 2024 and with a tight control over the country's oil and gas reserves, Putin has little to worry about when confronted with European or US criticism about human rights in his country.
One of his louder critics, but also the leader of a country with lucrative business relations with Russia, is Germany's Merkel - who for the eighth time in the past 10 years is awarded the title of the "most powerful woman in the world."
"The world's most powerful woman is the backbone of the 28-member European Union and carries the fate of the euro on her shoulders. Fresh off a commanding reelection in September 2013, she has served as ­Chancellor of Germany since 2005 - the first woman in the position," Forbes writes.
Merkel has also climbed in the male-dominated "most powerful people in the world" to the fifth spot, just after Pope Francis and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping.
Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank, is number nine on that list, followed by UK Prime Minister David Cameron (11) and French President Francois Hollande (18).
Apart from Draghi, no other EU official made it to the 72-strong list.
As for the female ranking, former French finance minister Christine Lagarde, currently head of the International Monetary Fund, is deemed the seventh-most powerful woman in the world. The Queen of the UK ranks 40, after pop stars such Beyonce and Angelina Jolie.
Forbes also did a ranking of the world's top billionaires.
The third richest man in the world is Spain's Armancio Ortega, who owns 60 percent of clothing brand Zara. His wealth is estimated at €41.5 billion. Forbes also notes that he bought valuable properties in Spain "at bargain prices" when the economy collapsed.
The richest man in the world is Microsoft founder Bill Gates (€52 billion), followed by Mexican telecoms chief Carlos Slim Helu (€50 billion).

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  Gold mines in Tanzania are operated by EU-based companies (Photo: Julien Harneis)

EU multinationals scamming Africa out of billions, Tanzanian MP says

31.10.13 @ 09:23

BRUSSELS - Tax avoidance loopholes for EU-based multinationals introduced by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are said to be costing African countries double the amount they receive in foreign aid.
“It is killing us, you cannot now explain poverty in Africa without this and this is the story that has been supressed for so long,” Zitto Kabwe, an MP who is also chairman of the public accounts committee in Tanzania, told this website on Wednesday (30 October)
He said Tanzania was forced in the late 1990s by the World Bank and the IMF to sign tax rules and tax laws which are favourable to investors, while depriving it of much needed revenue that would help wean it off foreign aid.
Kabwe said EU and other Western multinationals, including a Tanzanian state owned company, use tax havens and other illicit schemes to scam the countries of the continent out of around $50 billion every year.
By comparison, they receive $30 billion in foreign direct aid.
“Almost twice the amount of foreign aid that Africa receives is getting out of Africa through illicit financial transfer, through tax avoidance and the likes,” he said.
A 2011 IMF report on Tanzania, he noted, noted the country is unable to collect taxes due by foreign companies.
“They forgot that they [the IMF] are the ones who provided consultants for us to enact laws that are favourable to investments,” he said.
He noted that the IMF and the World Bank advised African states to design policies and laws which multinational corporations “are abusing to avoid paying taxes in our countries.”
Both institutions, he said, in a twist of events, are now offering advice to stop the abuse.
The IMF, contacted for this story, did not respond to the allegations.
But a possible solution, said Kabwe, is putting an end to double taxation arrangements used by multinationals who funnel their profits into tax havens like the Isle of Man or the British Virgin Islands.
Mining and telecommunications are the two largest sectors in Tanzania where EU-based companies exploit the loopholes for their own benefit.
“Almost all the mining operations in Tanzania are from Europe,” he said.
He noted that African Barrick Gold, which is registered in London, operates the most mines. Another, AngloGold Ashanti, is registered in South Africa but with subsidiaries registered in offshore tax havens, he added.
Three major mobile companies operate in Tanzania. One is based in Dubai, itself a tax haven, and one each registered in the Netherlands and in the UK, he noted.
He said big oil and gas companies like Statoil, Ophir, Shell, and Exxon Mobil are also in Tanzania, but no evidence has surfaced that they are using tax havens, except for the UK-owned PanAfrica Energy and British Gas.
“PanAfrica Energy operate from the Cayman Islands and Mauritius and this is a British government-owned company using tax havens to bring their FDI [foreign direct investments] to Tanzania,” he said.
He noted that the problem is manifold because a Tanzanian state-owned company was itself using a tax haven in Mauritius to avoid filling its own national coffers.
Chinese companies working in Africa, by comparison he said, are more transparent on taxes and pay their dues though they tend to scam on public procurement.
Kabwe, along with a handful of other delegates from Africa organised through the Brussels-based development NGO Eurodad, is set to discuss the issue with the European Commission on Thursday (31 October).
Savoir Mwambwa, from the Nairobi-based Tax Justice Network, said ending the scams orchestrated by EU-based companies would make Africa less dependent on aid.
He said Zambia Sugar, a subsidiary of the British Associated Foods company, would inflate their wage bills by making payments to a ghost branch in Mauritius.
“One common thing about all these companies, if you look at all the instruments they use, they all have businesses in one form or another in tax havens,” said Mwambwa.
The EU, for its part, has proposed reforms on accountancy and transparency directives.
The reforms, backed by the European Parliament in June, would require companies in the extractive and logging sector to publish an annual report disclosing the details of tax, bonuses and other payments made to governments for every project they operate over a $100,000 threshold.
The move drew praise from Oxfam, which said it would help fight tax dodging by EU companies in the developing world.
The reformed EU law is set for launch in 2015

CORRUPTION IN AFRICA:WHEN WILL STOP?????

Corruption in Africa: Where Does the Buck Stop?

Posted by Reunionblackfamily.

Corruption is an endemic cancer that has devastated African societies and impoverished millions. According to the Africa Union (AU) around $148 billion are stolen from the continent by its leaders and civil servants every year. The 2006 Forbes' list of most corrupt nations had 9 out of the first 16 countries coming from Africa. According to Global Financial Integrity (GFI) a US based anti-corruption group, the continent of Africa has lost more than 854 billion dollars in illicit financial outflows between 1970 and 2008. GFI director Raymond Baker says the amount of money that has been drained out of Africa—hundreds of billions decade after decade—is far in excess of the official development assistance going into African countries.
 
The illicit flow of such huge amount of money is not the work of African leaders and their associates alone but also that of multinational corporations from Europe, America and Asia doing business in Africa. It is no secrete multinational corporations with investments in Africa understate their profits and falsify profit documents in order to cheat poor African countries of money due them. The corporations also undervalue their goods, indulge in smuggling, theft and the falsification of invoicing and non-payment of taxes, as well as employing kickbacks and bribes to public officials. They also overprice projects; provide safe havens for looted funds, all of which affect the financial capability of countries in Africa to fight poverty. A 2002 UN Report into the war in Congo Kinshasa found multinational corporations working in that country to be engaging in some of the dubious practices mentioned above.

In 2002, Halliburton, a US company, was accused of establishing $180m flush fund with the intent of using it to bribe Nigeria officials in order to secure a $6billion Liquefied Gas Plant contract in Nigeria. The company fired Mr. Albert Jack Stanley, its executive. A report by the company later named a British called Jeffrey Tesler as the middleman behind the bribery. In 2010 Nigerian authorities brought charges against former US Vice President Dick Cheney and Halliburton for their role in the bribery scandal. The charges were settled out of court after the defendants agreed to pay 35 million dollars. On 17th September 2002 for example, a Canadian Engineering company called Acres International was convicted by a High Court in Lesotho for paying $260,000 bribe to secure an $8 billion dam contract in Lesotho. Achair Partners, a Swiss company and Progresso, an Italian company have been accused of bribing Somali Transition Government officials in order to secure contracts to deposit highly toxic industrial waste in the waters of Somalia.


But the corporations and foreign politicians and business executives are not the only ones in the game. The governments in Africa have been doing their best to loot their countries' coffers with impunity. The recently released US diplomatic cables by Wikileaks indicate how corruption has become part and parcel of President Ben Ali's family and his government in Tunisia. And the worse thing is that it is getting worse by the day. Part of the cable states that: “corruption in Tunisia is getting worse. Whether it is cash, services, land, property, or yes, even your yacht, President Ben Ali's family is rumoured to covet it and reportedly gets what it wants. President Ben Ali's extended family is often cited as the nexus of Tunisian corruption. Often referred to as a quasi-mafia, an oblique mention of "the Family" is enough to indicate which family you mean. Seemingly half of the Tunisian business community can claim a Ben Ali connection through marriage, and many of these relations are reported to have made the most of their lineage. Ben Ali's wife, Leila Ben Ali, and her extended family -- the Trabelsis -- provoke the greatest ire from Tunisians."

The Cables point out that the corruption at the presidency has trickled down to all aspect of Tunisian society. “Beyond the stories of the First Family's shady dealings, Tunisians report encountering low-level corruption as well in interactions with the police, customs, and a variety of government ministries. When a contact was asked about whether he thought corruption was better, worse, or the same, he exclaimed in exasperation “Of course it's getting worse!" He stated that corruption could not but increase as the culprits (Ben Ali and his cohorts) looked for more and more opportunities. Joking about Tunisia's rising inflation, he said that even the cost of bribes was up. "A traffic stop used to cost you 20 dinars and now it's up to 40 or 50!" The economic impact is clear, with Tunisian investors -- fearing the long-arm of "the Family" -- forgoing new investments [abroad and] keeping domestic investment rates low.” Tunisians openly talk about how corruption is destroying their country and bemoan the lack of effort by the authorities to tackle it. “Corruption is the elephant in the room; it is the problem everyone knows about, but no one can publicly acknowledge. The lack of transparency and accountability that characterize Tunisia's political system similarly plague the economy, damaging the investment climate and fueling the culture of corruption” says the Cable.
 
Despite years of exports of oil, gold, diamond, bauxite, tin, coltan, uranium, manganese timber and other minerals, the continent is ranked the poorest. Revenue from the minerals finds its way into the bank accounts of corrupt government officials, civil servants and their allies.

Nigeria has consistently featured in the top 1% of the most corrupt nation on the planet. The nation has also featured on the Foreign Policy Failed States Index. The index shows that Nigeria has featured consecutively over the last four years among the top 20 failed states on earth. Since oil was first discovered in Nigeria about 50 years ago, over $400 billion have been realised from its sale but today more than 70% of Nigerians continue to live in abject poverty. The country has nothing to show for its petro-dollars except poverty, corruption, and recently violence and anarchy. Only corrupt the politicians and the big oil companies such as Shell, Mobil, BP, and Chevron have benefited. As a result, able men and women are battling dangerous seas to enter Europe and try their luck. Others have resorted to 419, a popular scam used to trick people into giving out their money and valuables. A visit to the Niger Delta region of Nigeria shows that majority of the people especially the youth are unemployed. According to Nigeria's National Population Commission 2000 about 44% of young men between the ages of 20 and 24 are unemployed. The Niger Delta region which produces about 90% of the total 2.2 million barrels produce everyday, but over the past 30 years, poverty rate has been rising steadily and living conditions remain one of the poorest in the country. Life expectancy, literacy, and infant mortality all compare unfavourably with the national average. According to Okechukwu Ibeanu only about 27 per cent of households in the Niger Delta have access to safe drinking water. At the same time only 30 per cent have access to electricity and both are below the national average. There are 82,000 people per doctor rising to 132,000 in some areas more than three times the national average of 40,000. While 76 per cent of Nigerian children attend primary school only 30-40 do so in parts of the delta. Thus despite being the goose that lays the golden egg, the Niger Delta remains one of the most deprived areas in Nigeria.

In 2010 Sanusi Lamido, governor of Nigeria's Central Bank lamented over the corruption and economic mismanagement in his country saying:

“As an economist, I have done and looked at the input and output content of the Nigerian economy, and I have never seen an economy with a kind of black hole like that of Nigeria. We produced cotton, yet our textile plants are not working; we produce crude oil, we import petroleum products; we produce gas and export, yet we don't have power plant. We have iron ore, we don't have steel plant; and we have hide and skin, we don't have leader products”.

Sanusi was right. According to Paul Collier of Oxford University's Centre for the Study of African Economies, past and present leaders in Nigeria have managed to steal about 280 billion dollars of the country's oil proceeds, stashing it in abroad with the help of financial firms like, Barclays, Lloyds, and UBS. Between 2005 and 2007, several state governors and their immediate families were arrested by Scotland Yard in London on corruption and money laundering charges. Among them are James Ibori of oil rich Delta State and his wife Theresa who had their $35m asset frozen by the English court. Mr. Ibori earns about a thousand dollars a month but during his eight years as a state governor, he acquired wealth to the tune of $35m, and was able to finance the election campaign of late President Umaru Yar'Dua. He also owns a private jet and a lavish London home.

Another corrupt governor is Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, governor of oil-rich state of Bayelsa who was also arrested in London for money laundering. When Police conducted a search in his London home, they found one million pounds worth of cash. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has been linked to a corruption scandal involving former US Congressman William Jefferson who is serving terms in prison in US. In 2007 Atiku Abubakar was accused of diverting $125m from Petroleum Development Trust Fund into his personal businesses. Okey Ibeanu and Robin Luckham note that a mechanism that was devised by Nigerian leaders for stealing oil revenue included: “diversion into special funds controlled by the president; bribes or taxation paid on oil contracts; extensive smuggling across Nigeria's borders called bunkering; as well secrete account held by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) (six such accounts were uncovered in 1997)”.

Years of oil spills have made the soil unfit for any agricultural activity. Their streams and wells are polluted and the people have no access to basic necessities of life because their leaders have enriched themselves with the money. In the 1990s, abject poverty and destruction of the environment forced the people of Ogoniland in Nigeria to demand a say in Shell operations but the Abacha regime repulsed them and had Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight Ogoni activists executed. According to available data, Abacha stole between $3 and $4 billion of Nigeria's oil money and stashed it in several secret bank accounts in Switzerland, Britain, Luxemburg, Jersey Island and Liechtenstein.

Effort by the people of Niger Delta to get the Nigerian government to develop the oil rich areas fell on death ears until the unemployed youth took up arms against the government and the oil companies, kidnapping foreign oil workers; demanding ransom and disrupting oil production. Eventually, the companies had to reduce their output by 25% in 2007-8. These disruptions seriously affected supply of oil on the world market forcing the price to skyrocket to $140 a barrel in the summer of 2008. The situation has not changed much.

In Equatorial Guinea for example oil export has earned the country billions of dollars since 1990 yet most of the 600,000 people living in the country continue to live in poverty while Teodoro Obiang Nguema and his cronies continue to siphon the oil revenue with no accountability. His looting of Equatorial Guinea's assets became public when it was discovered that the US banking firm Riggs had written to him encouraging him to loot his oil rich but economically impoverished country. Teodoro Nguema Obiang, son of Teodoro Obiang Nguema has made news headlines about how he and his associates steal and misuse E. Guinea's oil funds.

Obiang Jr (the son) once hired Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen's 300-foot yacht Tatoosh for $700,000. His property portfolio includes a $35m estate in Malibu, California, purchased with cash, as well as a couple of estates in Cape Town, South Africa. His fleet of cars includes Bentley and a Lamborghini. The New York Times reports that "the boy king" also owns a Gulfstream V jet. Riggs Bank a US based bank is known to have helped the Obiangs steal their country's oil proceeds and hid it in US. A 2004 US Senate investigation into the activities of Riggs Bank found that President Obiang's family had received huge payments from US oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and Amerada Hess and laundered the money in US.

In 2004, President Bush Jr issued Presidential Proclamation 7750, barring corrupt leaders and their associates from entering the US but the Obiangs have been able to travel freely to the United States in spite of their massive corruption. John Bennett, the United States former ambassador to Equatorial Guinea from 1991 to 1994, told the New York Times that "Washington has turned a blind eye to the Obiangs' corruption because of US dependence on the country for natural resources".

One might think that given the history of corruption, poverty, instability and violence in oil producing countries (like Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo and Cameroon), incoming oil producing nations like Uganda would take time to make sure there is complete transparency and zero tolerance for corruption in the oil sector. If what is happening in Uganda's young oil sector continues unchecked then there is no doubt that the country will end up being labelled another resource curse country. The US diplomatic cables released by Wikilieaks indicate that the country's leaders are engaging in massive corruption and back door dealings that are slowly adding to the dire corruption situation in the country. One case involves Security Minister and National Resistance Movement (NRM) Secretary General Amama Mbabazi and Energy and Mineral Development Minister Hilary Onek who the report says have “benefited from the sale of production rights by Heritage Oil and Gas to Italian oil giant ENI”. Security Minister Mbabazi and Energy Minister Onek “received payments from Heritage and/or ENI in exchange for their support”. According to the diplomatic cable the Italian multinational firm “ENI created a shell company in London called TKL Holdings - through Mark Christian and Moses Seruje (who acted as frontmen) to funnel money to Mbabazi.

In Ghana, officials illegally charge 15 and 150 Ghana cedis for a birth certificate and a passport respectively. Police officers openly solicit bribes from bus and taxi drivers before they are allowed to cross mounted road blocks. Customs officials adopt all manner of tactics in order to collect money from importers and exporters before their goods are allowed to leave the ports.

Africa's political parties pledge to combat corruption with deadly force but when elected, change nothing. Ghana's former president John Kuffour pledged "zero tolerance for corruption" in his government but his party lost power for failure to tame corrupt officials.

In South Africa, Jacob Zuma battled it out for his part in the multi-billion arms deal in South Africa in 2001 until he was cleared by the court on the grounds of technicalities. In 2006, former president of Malawi Bakili Muluzi was arrested for pocketing $12m donated to his country by foreign governments. Former Zambian president Frederick Chiluba was arrested and charged with 11 counts of stealing money meant for the Zambia's development.

Guinea has large deposits of gold diamond, iron, nickel and uranium yet poverty is so severe that the country was ranked among the top 1% of most corrupt countries in Africa and 160th out of 177 in the UN's Development scale.

Gabon and Angola are no different. The late Omar Bongo of Gabon is known in the world for the way he and his family looted Gabon's oil revenue and used the proceeds to buy expensive and luxury properties in France. French Police investigation into the Bongo's illegal looting of Gabon's oil revenue established that the Bongo have 39 expensive apartment, fleet of luxury cars and owned 70 bank accounts in France. Similarly Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo Brazzaville also has 112 bank accounts in France with hundreds of millions of euros stashed in them. He also has mansions and fleet of cars similar to his father-in-law (Omar Bongo) all with the full knowledge of French authorities.

On Friday 31, 2007, the Guardian newspaper in Britain published a report by Kroll, an international risk consultancy firm, that Daniel Arap Moi, Kenya's former president and his family banked £1 billion in 28 countries including Britain. The family used shell Companies, secret trusts, front men and his entourage to siphon the money away. Moi's family also bought multimillion pound properties in London, New York, South Africa including 10,000-hectare ranch in Australia.

In Sudan the recently released US diplomatic cables by Wikileaks show that Omar Al Bashir has been able to loot 9 billion dollars of the country's oil proceeds and stashed it in UK and other jurisdictions with the help of British banks especially the Lloyds Banking Group. According to the US cable leaked by Wikileaks Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the International Criminal Court prosecutor contemplated going public with Bashir's loots which has turned Sudan into a desert of poverty. "Ocampo reported Lloyds bank in London may be holding or knowledgeable of the whereabouts of his money".

In Egypt for instance there are reports that over the 30 year period in which Mubarak has been president, Mubarak, his wife, Suzanne, and his two sons (Gamal and Alaa) have amassed wealth to the tune of $70bn. Swiss Bank UBS and the Bank of Scotland in Britain are reputed to be hosting much of the money they have acquired, while New York, London, Los Angeles also play host to the many properties owned by the family, not to mention the countless properties they own in Egypt itself including lands and hotels in Alexandra,Cairo, Sharm el-Sheikh and Suez.

Christopher Davidson, professor of Middle East politics at Durham University, told the Guardian newspaper in UK that "Much of Mubarak's money is in Swiss bank accounts and London property. These are the favourites of Middle Eastern leaders and there is no reason to think Mubarak is any different. Gamal's Wilton Place home in London is likely to be the tip of the iceberg." Meanwhile there are one million children roaming the streets of Cairo and other cities without home, education and future.

In countries such as Cameroon, The Gambia and Libya, a kleptocracy class of people have replaced anything democracy. Leaders amass wealth at the expense of their poor countries and continue to mismanage whatever remains of their corrupt activities. Because most of the leaders are former military officers or former rebels with no grasp of economics and management, they are unable to formulate any good economic policies that will transform and grow their economies hence poverty has become a part of the people but their leaders know not what poverty is.

In DR Congo it is estimated that gold and diamond deposits alone could fetch the country 23 trillion dollars not to mention the abundance of timber and other several minerals that are found in large quantities such as columbo-tantalite (coltan) and cassiterite (tin ore) yet years of corruption, mismanagement, conflicts and foreign involvement have made this resource rich nation one of the poorest in the world. Western nations cannot maintain their current level of lifestyle without Congo. Most corporations in the west can easily go bust without Congo. If Congo is the bloodline of the west and the west is rich because of Congo, why is Congo so poor?

Where are the billions of dollars from the sale of these minerals? The answer lies in the history of the nation which is endemic corruption, armed conflict and foreign involvement. Mobutu in his 32 year reign is believed to have taken several billions of dollars from the treasury and deposited it in his numerous Swiss bank accounts.

Everyday in Walikale, about 16 aircraft fly out of the city with loads of minerals bound for Rwanda. These stolen minerals further find their way in the western mineral markets in London and Switzerland. The proceeds are shared by the Generals, politicians, western companies the businessmen in Rwanda, the warlords in Congo who use part of their share to acquire weapons that are used to terrorise the people and prolong the war.

Western governments are quick to preach good governance to Africa but they fail to preach the same message to their banks who act as save havens for these corrupt leaders. Even though these countries like to portray themselves as civilised and cultured, they have failed to recognise that keeping monies that are dishonestly obtained from the poor people on earth taints whatever reputation they might have. How can a continent develop when monies meant for her development are stolen by her leaders and kept by countries who praise themselves as civilised, cultured, loving and democratic?

Africa is poor today because Swiss and other western banks collude with African kleptocrats to loot the continent. Corruption is rife on the continent because those who steal the money never lack a place to hide it. The dictators are able to steal so much because Western governments particularly France, Britain, Switzerland and the United States often turn a blind eye to the adulterous relationship between their governments, MNCs and the dictators in Africa. On 21 June 2010 Christine Lagarde, French Finance Minister and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of World Bank wrote an article titled “No Safe Havens for Dirty Money”. In their article they urged all countries to play by the rules, fight corruption and end safe haven practices. They argued for “better regulation, good governance, and accountability. “No safe havens for tax evasion. No safe havens for money laundering and terrorism financing, and no safe havens for cozy financial regulation” so they wrote but Ms Lagarde and her government have done little if not nothing to practice what they preach. Ben Ali of Tunisia, the Bongos in Gabon, Paul Biya of Cameroon, Nguesso and Dos Santos have become very corrupt because of their closeness with successive French governments, politicians and the business elite in France.

The impact of the large scale rampant corruption is that people who should not live in poverty are living in poverty. Roads, hospitals, schools, electricity and other social and economic infrastructures that should be provided with the money are never provided. Children die because of lack of food and lack of essential medicine in the hospitals. Unemployment becomes high because money does not circulate for people to have access to loans that could be used to establish their own businesses. Inflation becomes high and prices of food are put beyond the limit of the ordinary people. In the end the entire economy suffers. People harbouring grievances are no longer willing to sit quietly. Their frustration turned into despair and demonstration and sometimes violence uprising become the order of the day as current situation in the Niger Delta shows with consequences for everyone. Vandalism and looting of properties built with the stolen money becomes the target of the people who have been denied the opportunity to benefit from the economy.

Fighting corruption should not be left to the poor countries alone. Western countries have a duty to stop their nations being used as safe havens for stolen monies from the African continent. They should return all looted money put there by corrupt African leaders to the African people. There must be an international coalition dedicated to tracking all stolen monies on the face of the earth with Africa given to priority.

*The author is anti-corruption campaigner and the author of "Switzerland: A parasite feeding on poor African and Third World countries?"
By Lord Aikins Aduse.

FOREIGN AIDS IS NOT WORTH FOR AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT

Foreign aid is not the only African story worth hearing

Overcoming ‘The Danger of a Single Story’ to Africa’s development discourse

Zitto Kabwe

Foreign aid is not the only African story worth hearing

Chimamanda Adichie, the award-winning Nigerian author, has spoken of the danger of a single story. She writes from a literary perspective, but her warning also applies to talk about development in Africa.
For more than five decades, the development debate has been dominated by a single story: foreign aid. But there is another story – that of illicit financial flows.
However, this story is not rosy, nor is it popular. Information about illicit flows are kept secret and efforts to address the situation are often discouraged. And little wonder – because data shows that illicit money flowing out of the continent is double what it receives in foreign aid.
According to estimates by Global Financial Integrity, a research and advocacy organisation working to curtail illicit financial flows out of developing countries, up to $1.4tn (£870bn) was transferred from Africa over the three decades to 2009. Meanwhile, illicit flows exceeded the continent’s foreign debts. This makes Africa a net creditor to the world.
The curious case of Tanzania further underlines this story. In 2001-11, the east African country’s economy grew an average of 7% a year yet poverty declined by only 2%. The high growth reflects the country’s strengthening mining and service industries, but these have not benefited the poor.
Tax payments by multinationals have been minimal, and existing local sources of jobs, such as small-scale mining, have been suppressed for the benefit of big miners.
While Tanzania exported minerals worth $11.3bn between 2001-11, government revenues were US$440m, just below 4% of the total value of the exports. As a visiting IMF delegate remarked in 2011: “The growing mining sector has little net fiscal impact due to significant losses contributed by tax incentives abuse and structure.”
Of course, there are other challenges that hamper our development, such as corruption and the dominance of the informal economy, which accounts for an estimated 53% of GDP. However, tax evasion and avoidance are key contributors to Tanzania’s development setbacks.
The country loses 5% of its GDP to tax avoidance, 4% to tax exemptions given to multinationals, and almost 3% to evasion of customs duties. Several well-to-do Tanzanians evade tax by shifting their undeclared assets abroad. These assets are sometimes legally obtained, but usually they are acquired corruptly.
In 2012, the Swiss National Bank issued a report that showed Tanzanians held $196m in its institutions. Other unpublished reports indicate this figure could be even higher.
Last week, during an official fact-finding trip, a Swiss banker told me that while Tanzania had been complaining about Switzerland, much more Tanzanian-owned money was being held in London, Jersey, as well as the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. These are British offshore territories, however secrecy denies us an opportunity to discover the sum being held in these jurisdictions.
Much more money is lost from Africa through tax avoidance by multinationals investing in the continent. They use legal channels to transfer their profits to low-tax areas such as Switzerland, the City of London and the Cayman Islands.
The developed world is also losing resources, through the same mechanisms that are damaging Africa. Consequently, the US and EU have pressured tax havens to share information about the fortunes hidden on their shores, and, as a result, several of the most clandestine jurisdictions, including Switzerland, are preparing to share such information.
Yet my visit to Switzerland revealed a serious problem: the increased co-operation is between, and to the benefit of, developed countries. The rest risk being left in the dark, with no access to information about the financial resources taken from our countries.
We need to change this, and this is how we can start: the developed and developing world must agree to automatic and unconditional exchange of information about tax. Global rules to ensure multinationals report on a country-by-country basis are also vital, to insist they pay the correct amount of tax in each country.
At the same time, African governments must renounce double taxation treaties, which make them surrender tax revenues to developed countries. Instead, they should insist on a global convention on such matters.
Also important is for the UK and other countries in the Open Government Partnership to create public registries of the beneficial owners of companies, trusts and foundations. We cannot talk of open government without opening offshore jurisdictions, and we cannot insist on opening up government data without also opening up the tax havens that impoverish Africa.
Africa must not continue to be a beggar of its own illicitly removed resources, which are returned as aid but with strings attached. Aid to Africa is one story; illicit flows are another, less talked about reason for the continent’s poverty.
Zitto Kabwe MP is chair of the parliamentary public accounts committee in Tanzania, as well as an economist specialising in anti-corruption and campaigner on tax justice

WHERE IS THE EQUALITY OF HUMAN???why BOKO-HARAM DOING THIS HUMILIATION????

 These are Human bodies that have been gunned,slitted throats by Boko-haram terror groups...






Men look at the wreckage of a car following a bomb blast in Abuja,where boko haram were subjected on this effect..

THE REALITY OF WAR by DALAI LAMA

Dalai Lama messege

The Reality of War

Of course, war and the large military establishments are the greatest sources of violence in the world. Whether their purpose is defensive or offensive, these vast powerful organizations exist solely to kill human beings. We should think carefully about the reality of war. Most of us have been conditioned to regard military combat as exciting and glamorous - an opportunity for men to prove their competence and courage. Since armies are legal, we feel that war is acceptable; in general, nobody feels that war is criminal or that accepting it is criminal attitude. In fact, we have been brainwashed. War is neither glamorous nor attractive. It is monstrous. Its very nature is one of tragedy and suffering.

War is like a fire in the human community, one whose fuel is living beings. I find this analogy especially appropriate and useful. Modern warfare waged primarily with different forms of fire, but we are so conditioned to see it as thrilling that we talk about this or that marvelous weapon as a remarkable piece of technology without remembering that, if it is actually used, it will burn living people. War also strongly resembles a fire in the way it spreads. If one area gets weak, the commanding officer sends in reinforcements. This is throwing live people onto a fire. But because we have been brainwashed to think this way, we do not consider the suffering of individual soldiers. No soldiers want to be wounded or die. None of his loved ones wants any harm to come to him. If one soldier is killed, or maimed for life, at least another five or ten people - his relatives and friends - suffer as well. We should all be horrified by the extent of this tragedy, but we are too confused.

Frankly as a child, I too was attracted to the military. Their uniform looked so smart and beautiful. But that is exactly how the seduction begins.  Children starts playing games that will one day lead them in trouble. There are plenty of exciting games to play and costumes to wear other than those based on the killing of human beings. Again, if we as adults were not so fascinated by war, we would clearly see that to allow our children to become habituated to war games is extremely unfortunate. Some former soldiers have told me that when they shot their first person they felt uncomfortable but as they continued to kill it began to feel quite normal. In time, we can get used to anything.

It is not only during times of war that military establishments are destructive. By their very design, they were the single greatest violators of human rights, and it is the soldiers themselves who suffer most consistently from their abuse. After the officer in charge have given beautiful explanations about the importance of the army, its discipline and the need to conquer the enemy, the rights of the great mass of soldiers are most entirely taken away. They are then compelled to forfeit their individual will, and, in the end, to sacrifice their lives. Moreover, once an army has become a powerful force, there is every risk that it will destroy the happiness of its own country.

There are people with destructive intentions in every society, and the temptation to gain command over an organisation capable of fulfilling their desires can become overwhelming. But no matter how malevolent or evil are the many murderous dictators who can currently oppress their nations and cause international problems, it is obvious that they cannot harm others or destroy countless human lives if they don't have a military organisation accepted and condoned by society. As long as there are powerful armies there will always be danger of dictatorship. If we really believe dictatorship to be a despicable and destructive form of government, then we must recognize that the existence of a powerful military establishment is one of its main causes.

Militarism is also very expensive. Pursuing peace through military strength places a tremendously wasteful burden on society. Governments spend vast sums on increasingly intricate weapons when, in fact, nobody really wants to use them. Not only money but also valuable energy and human intelligence are squandered, while all that increases is fear.

I want to make it clear, however, that although I am deeply opposed to war, I am not advocating appeasement. It is often necessary to take a strong stand to counter unjust aggression. For instance, it is plain to all of us that the Second World War was entirely justified. It "saved civilization" from the tyranny of Nazi Germany, as Winston Churchill so aptly put it. In my view, the Korean War was also just, since it gave South Korea the chance of gradually developing democracy. But we can only judge whether or not a conflict was vindicated on moral grounds with hindsight. For example, we can now see that during the Cold War, the principle of nuclear deterrence had a certain value. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to assess al such matters with any degree of accuracy. War is violence and violence is unpredictable. Therefore, it is better to avoid it if possible, and never to presume that we know beforehand whether the outcome of a particular war will be beneficial or not.

For instance, in the case of the Cold War, through deterrence may have helped promote stability, it did not create genuine peace. The last forty years in Europe have seen merely the absence of war, which has not been real peace but a facsimile founded dear. At best, building arms to maintain peace serves only as a temporary measure. As long as adversaries do not trust each other, any number of factors can upset the balance of power. Lasting peace can assure secured only on the basis of genuine trust.

POOR PEOPLE WITH NO POWER TO DEFEND

Al-Shabaab ousts traditional elders in favour of loyalists

By Abdi Moalim in Mogadishu

Al-Shabaab is pushing traditional elders from power in Somalia's Bay, Bakol and Lower Shabelle regions and elevating younger loyalists who back the militant group's doctrine.

• Somali clan elders attend a meeting in Beledweyne in February 2013. Beledweyne was liberated from al-Shabaab in September 2011, but the militant group has been replacing traditional elders in parts of the country still under its control. [AFP Photo/AU-UN IST Photo/Tobin Jones]
  

Elders who spoke to Sabahi said militants are training and supporting men under 40 years of age, who can be easily indoctrinated by al-Shabaab, to rise up as elders in their communities and replace those who do not agree or comply with al-Shabaab ideology.
Since 2011, al-Shabaab has removed at least a dozen traditional elders in those regions, parts of which have been the hardest hit by al-Shabaab's rigid rules and where elders have been outspoken against the militants' views, said Ali Abdirahman Ali, spokesman for the Digil and Mirifle tribe.
Al-Shabaab's campaign came about in full force after the traditional elders went to Mogadishu to participate in the formation of Somalia's federal government in May 2012, Ali told Sabahi.
Thirty-one traditional elders of the Digil and Mirifle tribe who were part of the National Constituent Assembly are now in Baidoa where government forces are ensuring their safety, he said.
The militant group replaced traditional elders from six of the major Digil and Mirifle clans in Bay and Bakol with elders who do not have public support, he said, although he declined to name which clans due to the sensitivity of the circumstances.
Al-Shabaab has already harmed societal customs and culture, and is continuing to do so by branding the legitimate elders as leaders who cannot be trusted, Ali said.
"They see us as heretics who have rejected Islam and who should be killed," he said, adding that other legitimate elders in areas controlled by al-Shabaab could not speak out and were confined to their homes due to fear of al-Shabaab.
Ali called on the public not to support the elders who were appointed by al-Shabaab, and to remain loyal to their true traditional elders.

Poor people with no power to defend themselves

One of the traditional elders al-Shabaab pushed out was 80-year-old Ali Barre Mohamed from Wajid district in the Bakol region.
"They replaced me with another one when I would not work with them, [because] I was one of the elders who selected the parliamentarians [in the federal government]," he told Sabahi. "[Al-Shabaab leader] Ahmed Godane replaced me with a young man from my clan, whom I do not personally know, because that was his preferred appointee."
The local population is forced to support al-Shabaab and obey its orders "because they are poor people who do not have the power to defend themselves", Mohamed said.
A similar thing happened in Barawe in Lower Shabelle, according to Abukar Gamelle, 75, an elder from that area.
"We followed all their orders and they gave us about five trainings in 2011," he said, referring to al-Shabaab's attempts to indoctrinate local elders. "At the end of 2011, they ordered me and five other men to transfer our traditional elder positions and they appointed five young men."
Gamelle said he fled the region and came to Mogadishu after al-Shabaab pushed him out. Meanwhile, his five fellow elders stayed behind in Barawe, but have no freedom, he said.
After Gamelle's departure, several lower-ranking traditional elders were jailed in their districts because they too had refused to follow al-Shabaab's orders, he said.
Gamelle appealed to the government to act immediately to liberate Barawe, so that its people could be free and traditional elders like him could return to their former roles.

Somali government 'prepared to free the people'

Al-Shabaab is trying to propagate their ideology and change Somali culture at its core by targeting traditional elders, Somali lawmaker Osman Libah said.
"In the past, they used to kill people and now they are destroying the culture," Libah told Sabahi.
He said the government should act fast because al-Shabaab's strategy is resulting in some clans having two elders with opposing views, which could leave those communities at risk for inter-clan conflict even after al-Shabaab is removed.
Somali political analyst Omar Dahir, who heads the Centre for Moderation and Dialogue in Mogadishu, said al-Shabaab is trying to control traditional elders because these leaders wield much influence in Somalia.
"They want to find elders who are loyal to them and who assist them, for example, with the recruitment of boys for war and to get weapons held by the clan militias. They also want to get protection within the clans," Dahir said.
Areas under al-Shabaab's control must be liberated in order to combat this problem, he said, adding that the Somali army cannot accomplish this on its own.
"The Somali army needs to be equipped and armed on the same level as [African Union Mission in Somalia] troops because foreign troops cannot do anything about this issue as it requires close collaboration with the people," he said.
Meanwhile, Ridwan Haji Abdiwali, spokesman for Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon, told Sabahi that the government was committed to solving the problems faced by Somalis who live under al-Shabaab rule.
"The government has been working towards liberating areas under al-Shabaab's control all along and continues to be prepared to free the people," he said.
The government needs international help to wipe out al-Shabaab, but it is critical to empower the Somali military as it has a better understanding of the Somali territory and people, Abdiwali said.
"The Somali government is looking for ways to build up the army to a level where they can liberate the country," he said

THINGS U DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT DALAI LAMA of TIBET

Brief Biography

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. He is the spiritual leader of Tibet. He was born on 6 July 1935, to a farming family, in a small hamlet located in Taktser, Amdo, northeastern Tibet. At the very young age of two, the child who was named Lhamo Dhondup at that time, was recognized as the reincarnation of the previous 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso.

The Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the patron saint of Tibet. Bodhisattvas are believed to be enlightened beings who have postponed their own nirvana and chosen to take rebirth in order to serve humanity.

Education in Tibet

His Holiness began his monastic education at the age of six. The curriculum consisted of five major and five minor subjects. The major subjects were logic, Tibetan art and culture, Sanskrit, medicine, and Buddhist philosophy which was further divided into a further five categories: Prajnaparimita, the perfection of wisdom; Madhyamika, the philosophy of the middle Way; Vinaya, the canon of monastic discipline; Abidharma, metaphysics; and Pramana, logic and epistemology. The five minor subjects were poetry, music and drama, astrology, composition and phrasing, and synonyms. At 23, His Holiness sat for his final examination in Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple, during the annual Monlam (prayer) Festival in 1959. He passed with honors and was awarded the Geshe Lharampa degree, the highest-level degree, equivalent to a doctorate of Buddhist philosophy.

Leadership Responsibilities

In 1950 His Holiness was called upon to assume full political power after China's invasion of Tibet in 1949/50. In 1954, he went to Beijing for peace talks with Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders, including Deng Xiaoping and Chou Enlai. But finally, in 1959, with the brutal suppression of the Tibetan national uprising in Lhasa by Chinese troops, His Holiness was forced to escape into exile. Since then he has been living in Dharamsala, northern India.

Since the Chinese invasion, the Central Tibetan Administration led by His Holiness appealed to the United Nations on the question of Tibet. The General Assembly adopted three resolutions on Tibet in 1959, 1961 and 1965.


 






Democratization Process

In 1963, His Holiness presented a draft democratic constitution for Tibet that was followed by a number of reforms to democratize the Tibetan administrative set-up. The new democratic constitution promulgated as a result of this reform was named "The Charter of Tibetans in Exile". The charter enshrines freedom of speech, belief, assembly and movement. It also provides detailed guidelines on the functioning of the Tibetan Administration with respect to those living in exile.

In 1992, the Central Tibetan Administration issued guidelines for the constitution of a future, free Tibet. The guidelines outlined that when Tibet became free the immediate task would be to set up an interim government whose first responsibility will be to elect a constitutional assembly to frame and adopt Tibet's democratic constitution. His Holiness also stated that he hoped that Tibet, comprising of the three traditional provinces of U-Tsang, Amdo and Kham, would be federal and democratic.

In May 1990, the reforms called for by His Holiness saw the realization of a truly democratic administration in exile for the Tibetan community. The Tibetan Cabinet (Kashag), which till then had been appointed by His Holiness, was dissolved along with the Tenth Assembly of the Tibetan People's Deputies (Tibetan parliament in exile). In the same year, exile Tibetans on the Indian sub-continent and in more than 33 other countries elected 46 members to the expanded Eleventh Tibetan Assembly on a one-man one-vote basis. The Assembly, in its turn, elected the new members of the cabinet.

In September 2001, a further major step in democratization was taken when the Tibetan electorate directly elected the Kalon Tripa, the senior-most minister of the Cabinet. The Kalon Tripa in turn appointed his own cabinet who had to be approved by the Tibetan Assembly. In Tibet's long history, this was the first time that the people elected the political leadership of Tibet. Since the direct election of the Kalon Tripa, the system of the institution of Gaden Phodrang of the Dalai Lama as both the spiritual and temporal authority ended. Since then, His Holiness described himself as being semi-retired.

Peace Initiatives

On 21 September 1987 in his address to members of the United States Congress in Washington, DC, His Holiness proposed a Five-Point Peace Plan for Tibet as the first step towards a peaceful solution to the worsening situation in Tibet. The peace plan contained five basic components:

1. Transformation of the whole of Tibet into a zone of peace.
2. Abandonment of China's population transfer policy that threatens the very existence of the Tibetans as a people.
3. Respect for the Tibetan people's fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms.
4. Restoration and protection of Tibet's natural environment and the abandonment of China's use of Tibet for the production of nuclear weapons and dumping of nuclear waste.
5. Commencement of earnest negotiations on the future status of Tibet and of relations between the Tibetan and Chinese peoples.

On 15 June 1988 in an address to members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, His Holiness made another detailed proposal elaborating on the last point of the Five-Point Peace Plan. He proposed talks between the Chinese and Tibetans leading to a self-governing democratic political entity for all three provinces of Tibet. This entity would be in association with the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Government would continue to remain responsible for Tibet's foreign policy and defence.

Universal Recognition

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a man of peace. In 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for the liberation of Tibet. He has consistently advocated policies of non-violence, even in the face of extreme aggression. He also became the first Nobel Laureate to be recognized for his concern for global environmental problems.

His Holiness has travelled to more than 67 countries spanning 6 continents. He has received over 150 awards, honorary doctorates, prizes, etc., in recognition of his message of peace, non-violence, inter-religious understanding, universal responsibility and compassion.  He has also authored or co-authored more than 110 books.

His Holiness has held dialogues with heads of different religions and participated in many events promoting inter-religious harmony and understanding.

Since the mid-1980’s, His Holiness has begun a dialogue with modern scientists, mainly in the fields of psychology, neurobiology, quantum physics and cosmology. This has led to a historic collaboration between Buddhist monks and world-renowned scientists in trying to help individuals achieve peace of mind. This has also led to the introduction of modern science in the traditional curriculum of Tibetan monastic institutions re-established in exile.

Political Retirement

On 14 March 2011 His Holiness sent a letter to the Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies (Tibetan Parliament in exile) requesting them to devolve him of his temporal (political) power. According to The Charter of the Tibetans in Exile, His Holiness was technically still considered to be the head of state. The historic announcement would bring an end to the dual spiritual and political authority of the Dalai Lama and revert to the previous tradition of the first four Dalai Lamas being only the spiritual leader of Tibet. The democratically elected leadership would assume complete formal political leadership of Tibet. The Ganden Phodrang, the institution of the Dalai Lamas, would continue and remain intact.

On 29 May 2011 His Holiness signed into law the formal transfer of his temporal power to the democratically elected leader. This brought to an end the 368-year old tradition of the Dalai Lamas being both spiritual and temporal head of Tibet.

The Future

As far back as 1969, His Holiness has made clear that concerned people should decide whether the Dalai Lama’s reincarnations should continue in the future. However, in the absence of clear guidelines, should the concerned public express a strong wish for the Dalai Lamas to continue, there is an obvious risk of vested political interests misusing the reincarnation system to fulfill their own political agenda. Therefore, on 24 September 2011, clear guidelines were drawn up to recognize the next Dalai Lama, so that there is no room for doubt or deception.

His Holiness has stated that when he is about ninety he will consult the high Lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions, the Tibetan public, and other concerned people who follow Tibetan Buddhism, and re-evaluate whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue or not. On that basis, a decision will be made. If it is decided that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama should continue and there is a need for the Fifteenth Dalai Lama to be recognized, responsibility for doing so will primarily rest on the concerned officers of the Dalai Lama’s Gaden Phodrang Trust. They should consult the various heads of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions and the reliable oath-bound Dharma Protectors who are linked inseparably to the lineage of the Dalai Lamas. They should seek advice and direction from these concerned beings and carry out the procedures of search and recognition in accordance with past tradition. His Holiness would leave clear written instructions about this. Bear in mind that, apart from the reincarnation recognized through such legitimate methods, no recognition or acceptance should be given to a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including those in the People’s Republic of China

DALAI LAMA'S VOICE will be STAMP OUT

China says will stamp out Dalai Lama's voice in Tibet

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING | Sat Nov 2, 2013 5:29am GMT

(Reuters) - China aims to stamp out the voice of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in his restive and remote homeland by ensuring that his "propaganda" is not received by anyone on the internet, television or other means, a top official said.
China has tried, with varying degrees of success, to prevent Tibetans listening to or watching programmes broadcast from outside the country, or accessing any information about the Dalai Lama and the exiled government on the internet.
But many Tibetans are still able to access such news, either via illegal satellite televisions or by skirting Chinese internet restrictions. The Dalai Lama's picture and his teachings are also smuggled into Tibet, at great personal risk.
Writing in the ruling Communist Party's influential journal Qiushi, the latest issue of which was received by subscribers on Saturday, Tibet's party chief Chen Quanguo said that the government would ensure only its voice is heard.
"Strike hard against the reactionary propaganda of the splittists from entering Tibet," Chen wrote in the magazine, whose name means "seeking truth".
The government will achieve this by confiscating illegal satellite dishes, increasing monitoring of online content and making sure all telephone and internet users are registered using their real names, he added.
"Work hard to ensure that the voice and image of the party is heard and seen over the vast expanses (of Tibet) ... and that the voice and image of the enemy forces and the Dalai clique are neither seen nor heard," Chen wrote.
China calls the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Dalai Lama a "wolf in sheep's clothing" who seeks to use violent methods to establish an independent Tibet.
The Dalai Lama, who fled to India after a failed uprising in 1959, says he simply wants genuine autonomy for Tibet, and denies espousing violence.
Chen said the party would seek to expose the Dalai Lama's "hypocrisy and deception" and his "reactionary plots".
China has long defended its iron-fisted rule in Tibet, saying the region suffered from dire poverty, brutal exploitation and economic stagnation until 1950, when Communist troops "peacefully liberated" Tibet.
Tensions in China's Tibetan regions are at their highest in years after a spate of self-immolation protests by Tibetans, which have led to an intensified security crackdown.
(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

DRUG TRAFFICKING with NEW STYLE IN the WORLD

Conflict Minerals, Rebels and Child Soldiers in Congo

WATCH this VIDEO OF CONGO WAR...

 http://www.youtube.com/v/kYqrflGpTRE?version=3&autohide=1&feature=share&autoplay=1&
attribution_tag=_iDgms07VdRE9Ubi7Gnbpg&showinfo=1&autohide=1

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of WAR IN MALI

http://www.youtube.com/v/hvReZFYqNvQ?version=3&autohide=1&showinfo=1&autohide=1&autoplay=1&feature=share&attribution_tag=vqFXOcYJdYoAZWDknyaH8w

JIHADISTS TO SYRIA WAR

Al-Qaeda recruits entering Syria from Turkey safehouses

Foreign jihadists - including Britons - are flooding into Syria to join al-Qaeda from safe houses in Turkey

Foreign jihadists - including Britons - are flooding into Syria to join al-Qaeda from safe houses in Turkey  Photo: GETTY IMAGES

By Ruth Sherlock, Antakya

Hundreds of al-Qaeda recruits are being kept in safe houses in southern Turkey, before being smuggled over the border to wage “jihad” in Syria, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

The network of hideouts is enabling a steady flow of foreign fighters - including Britons - to join the country’s civil war, according to some of the volunteers involved.

These foreign jihadists have now largely eclipsed the “moderate” wing of the rebel Free Syrian Army, which is supported by the West. Al-Qaeda’s ability to use Turkish territory will raise questions about the role the Nato member is playing in Syria’s civil war.

Turkey has backed the rebels from the beginning - and its government has been assumed to share the West’s concerns about al-Qaeda. But experts say there are growing fears over whether the Turkish authorities may have lost control of the movement of new al-Qaeda recruits - or may even be turning a blind eye.

”Every day there are Mujahideen coming here from all different nationalities,” said Abu Abdulrahman, a Jordanian volunteer managing the flow of foreign fighters. He handles a network of receiving centres in southern Turkey for volunteers wishing to join al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, known as “the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL).

He spoke from inside an al-Qaeda safe house, using the Skype account of an intermediary and with volunteers from several countries, including Britain, listening in.
Once the volunteer reaches Turkey, there are “procedures” before he can join al-Qaeda, explained Abu Abdulrahman: “If you want to enter, you have to be a proper Muslim. We have to research you to make sure you are not a spy. If you are foreign, someone in our network needs to recommend you,” he said.
These hideouts are generally apartments rented under false names in villages along Turkey’s frontier with Syria. The recruits sometimes wait for weeks until they are cleared to cross the border. The homes are also used as “rest houses” for al-Qaeda fighters from the frontline in Syria.
Perhaps 10,000 foreign fighters may now be in Syria, according to analysts. Some are hardened veterans of the Iraq war; others are young “first-time jihadists” - with a significant proportion from Western countries.
Abu Abdullah, an Australian volunteer, said that he left to fight in Syria because a “Western lifestyle stands against Islam”. He was also repelled by the atrocities of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
“When you see the women and children - any human being - being shot or raped or killed in front of their fathers and families, just because they pray to Allah, you have to be moved by the humanity of it. Prophet Mohammed said if one part of the body is wounded, then the whole body is sleepless. If just one person is injured and something goes against Islam, we must react.”
But Abu Abdullah faltered as he tried to recall a passage from the Koran: “I am sorry, I am not the most knowledgeable of Muslims. Allah forgive me for that,” he said.
Charles Lister, from IHS Jane’s, a defence consultancy, said: “There are strong suggestions that the number of foreign jihadists in Syria is increasing. Definitely taking a look at the nature of ISIL presence, the geographical spread of foreigners is expanding. This is likely to do with the ease with which recruits can cross the border.”
Another analyst said that Turkey was “turning a blind eye” to the number of foreign fighters entering Syria across its territory, including through Antakya, the capital of the border province of Hatay. The result, he added, was that jihadists had become a “thorn” in Turkey’s side, seizing de facto control of towns and villages near the border.
Turkish officials vehemently deny this, blaming the influx on the failure of the international community to settle the Syrian war. “We have never been soft on this issue. We do not tolerate the presence of extremists and terrorist elements on our soil,” said one Turkish official. “If jihadists have crossed, it has been without our knowledge and out of our control. The presence of extremists in Syria is a common concern for Turkey and other countries - and the reason why the numbers of jihadists continues to grow in Syria is because of the failure of the international community to solve the crises at hand.”
The official appealed to foreign countries not to "just point the blame" at Turkey, and to work to tighten surveillance on citizens that might want to travel to Syria: "Unless we are given information that these people are al-Qaeda members, people from a terrorist organisation, what legal basis do we have to stop them if they travel on a valid passport?"
Turkish police are seeking to close down the al-Qaeda safe houses, running raids on the apartments when intelligence about an al-Qaeda presence is gleaned. And the Turkish authorities have started improving the quality of border controls. But with more than 560 miles of shared frontier between Turkey and Syria, and with the sheer number of foreign jihadists arriving in the country, they have, so far, been unable to stem the pipeline. If the police detain someone, they are unable to imprison them or send deport them back to a home country because it is difficult to prove that they are an ISIL member, one jihadi gloated.
In the border town of Kilis, three hours drive from Antakya, jihadists feel comfortable enough to sip coffee in the lobbies of hotels murmuring quietly to their colleagues. This week the Telegraph spoke to one a member of ISIL in one of these hotels. Whether Turkey wants to or not, "she has been very good to us," the jihadi, who wouldn't be named, said, with a wink.

GAZA WAR

Israeli fire 'kills Gaza militant'

Israeli tank accused of firing on group in the Gaza Strip and killing one man

An Israeli soldier walks out from a tunnel during a tour of the tunnel that the Israeli army reportedly discovered and seized near Kissufum, southern Israel, along the border with the Gaza Strip. Photo: EPA

AFP

12:22AM GMT 01 Nov 2013

An Israeli tank shell has killed a member of the military wing of Gaza's ruling Hamas and wounded another, according to Palestinian medical and security officials.

They said that Israeli aircraft also attacked an unknown target east of Gaza City, but there was no report of casualties.

The strike came after Hamas TV in Gaza said that three mortar shells were fired from the strip into southern Israel. It did not say who was responsible.

The Israeli army did not immediately confirm the air strike or any mortar attack.

The Palestinian officials named the dead man as Rabieh Barikeh and said that he and others were carrying out surveillance on Israeli movements at the Gaza border when they came under fire, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The security officials and eyewitnesses said that an Israeli tank and armoured bulldozer came about 100 metres (yards) inside the strip.
Witnesses said that a mine exploded under the tank.
An Israeli military spokeswoman would not comment on the fighting other than to tell AFP that "a pinpoint and defensive activity against the terror tunnel is currently taking place."
She was referring to a tunnel from the Gaza Strip into Israel uncovered by Israeli security forces last month and allegedly intended as a springboard for attacks.
Hamas's Izzadine al-Qassam military wing said at the time that it dug the tunnel as part of a plan to kidnap Israeli soldiers and hold them in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
"We are working on the ground and under the ground to release the prisoners (held by Israel)," the group's spokesman Abu Obeida said on October 20.
On Monday Israeli warplanes raided the northern Gaza Strip after militants fired across the border.
It was the first Israeli air strike on Gaza in more than two months and came shortly after two rockets were fired at southern Israel.