Zimbabwe: Pilots Vow to Continue Strike

Striking Air Zimbabwe pilots insisted they will not return to work until management pays them their outstanding salaries.

Acting chief executive Mr. Innocent Mavhunga appeared before the House of Assembly Portfolio committee and said the company was broke and pleaded with the striking workers to return to work while they looked for money to pay them the outstanding salaries.

Mr. Mavhunga said the company had paid the workers $4 million US dollars with the bulk of it going towards settling salaries of pilots.

But the 49 pilots are adamant that they will not return to work until their salaries are paid in full.

The workers say the company management unilaterally cut their salaries last year.

The pilots say they are still owed $9 million US dollars in salaries and allowances accrued since over several years.

Air Zimbabwe is currently in $100 million US dollars of debt and has pulled out of 18 of its 25 routes and reduced the number of flights per week.

http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/201104120094.html

Meeting and Dedication Projects

President Sirleaf, in Southeast and Central Liberia, Meets Refugees and Dedicates Projects‏
Monday, 18th April 2011

President Sirleaf in a meeting with Ivorian regugees in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh county. Photo Credit: Adama B. Thompson/Executive Mansion
Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County - President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf over the weekend visited several districts in Grand Gedeh County that are host to thousands of refugees who fled the political crisis in neighboring Côte d’Ivoire. Accompanied by officials of Liberian and international relief agencies, the President made stops at a Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC) Compound in Zwedru, home to refugees who have settled there since 2002.
An Executive Mansion dispatch says the President also visited refugee transit centers in the towns of Zai, Zleh and Toe, a major transit point for refugees fleeing the recent unrest in Côte d’Ivoire. Toe Town is hosting the highest number of refugees in Grand Gedeh, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Interacting with refugees at the transit centers, President Sirleaf expressed regret over the situation which forced them to seek refuge in Liberia. She hoped for a speedy return to normalcy, to enable the Ivoirians to return home.
The Liberian leader assured the refugees, mostly women and children, of government’s protection during their stay in the country. She informed them that the government is working with local and international humanitarian agencies to provide more suitable resettlement centers for them, as well as educational facilities for the children, and appealed for understanding and patience while these efforts are being exerted.The President said the government will provide tools and seeds for the refugees to engage in farming activities, adding: “That is the only way you can sustain yourselves and achieve self-dependency.” The Liberian leader presented the refugees with relief and other basic items, including clothing, a gesture they described as loving and unprecedented.
They lauded the President for the visit and the concern she has demonstrated for their well-being, and hoped that UNHCR will move swiftly in responding to their needs. They complained of inadequate food, accommodation, health and nutritional supplies. More than 22,000 Ivoirians have fled to Grand Gedeh since the political crisis erupted in their country, and the county has hosted nearly 2,500 refugees since 2002.Meanwhile, the President is now in Bong County, dedicating and inspecting development projects in the area. After an overnight stay in Ganta, Nimba County, the President arrived in Gbarnga Saturday afternoon to a rousing welcome by Bong County residents. Following arrival ceremonies, President Sirleaf inspected the future sites of a police barracks and the Gboveh Community College, where construction has commenced. She traveled to Jorquelleh and Kokoyay Districts Sunday and dedicated projects that included two clinics and a public school. More activities continue Monday in Sanoyea Town and Fuamah District, where the President will dedicate the Kelebah clinic and later hold a Town Hall meeting in the area.

March 21, 2011, 2:47 pm

Girls in the Spotlight: A Lesson from Rwanda

By JOSH RUXIN

Mike McCausland/Rwanda Girls Initiative School girls at the Gashora Girls Academy, which opened in March, 2011.

When I try to get people interested in the education cause in Rwanda, they often tell me that they’re up to their eyeballs in work on public or charter schools in their own neighborhoods – Upper West Side, Noe Valley, wherever. Some people, though, have a broad definition of “neighborhood.”

A couple of years back, two women from Seattle approached me about the possibility of establishing a girls’ school here in Rwanda. I’ve grown accustomed to receiving countless entrepreneurial inquiries from well-meaning people and seeing little come of them, so I must admit that my first reaction was skepticism.

Luckily, Soozi McGill and Shal Foster defied my initial doubts and have followed through on their plans with aplomb. While training together for a marathon in the United States, the two long-time friends found themselves discussing the high-quality education that their own children were receiving. From there, they started to form a vision to help children who had not been born so lucky.

By the time Soozi and Shal began dreaming about a school for girls in Rwanda, they were all too familiar with the statistics that should drive more people to take action: universal secondary education for girls in sub-Saharan Africa could save the lives of as many as 1.8 million children under five annually. One year of female schooling reduces fertility by 10 percent, and each additional year of schooling per 1,000 women helps prevent two maternal deaths.

In Rwanda, however, less than 13 percent of girls attend secondary school. Tired of simply reading the statistics from halfway around the world, Soozi and Shal decided to do something about them – and so began the Rwanda Girls Initiative (RGI).

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For three years, Soozi and Shalhave collaborated with a dynamic group of education, business and civic leaders to create a new school in the dusty rural area of Gashora, on a 26-acre swath of land overlooking Lake Milayi. This month, the Gashora Girls Academy opened its doors to its first class of 90 boarding students.

The campus bustles with girls from all over the country, many of whom enjoy scholarships from individual and corporate sponsors from both inside and outside of Rwanda. Each girl pulls a mosquito net over her bunk bed at night, walks just a few minutes to each class in the morning, and benefits from the guidance of teachers and dorm parents who live and work with her day in and day out.

The Gashora Girls Academy has unique support on local and global levels. The Rwandan government – which has committed 17 percent of its total budget to education – offered funding to purchase some of the land for the academy and pay teachers’ salaries. Architectural experts from around the world designed the open-air classrooms, which stand in stark contrast to so many other Rwandan classrooms with slatted windows and stuffy interiors. A sparkling white rock pathway leads down the hill to a demonstration farm, which will enable the school to grow much of its own food while also introducing best agricultural practices to local farmers. At the center of the school’s grounds is a vast community center – complete with a computer kiosk – that will be shared with local residents and used for town meetings and school functions.

Mike McCausland/Rwanda Girls Initiative The Gashora Girls Academy, which opened in March, 2011, in Rwanda.

The Gashora Girls Academy is a college preparatory school with a mission: each student should graduate with a sense of economic empowerment and a renewed commitment to her community. The academy will focus on science and technology, with an eye for equipping its girls with the knowledge and skills they need to participate in this vital growing sector of Rwanda’s economy. While so many young people around the world – especially girls – are denied the very basic right to education, the Gashora Girls Academy is a model for what it means to invest in a better future.

An idea that began as a pipe dream in Seattle has become a major investment in the young people of a nation brimming with promise.

Josh Ruxin is the founder and director of Rwanda Works and a Columbia University expert on public health. He is also the director of the Access Project and Access’s Neglected Tropical Disease Control Program. Dr. Ruxin has extensive experience operating at the intersection of public health, business and international development. He lives in Kigali, Rwanda, with his wife and two daughters.

Rugby Player Tackles Social Needs in Zimbabwe

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/sports/rugby/12iht-RUGBY12.html

Ethiopian support of Eritrean Rebels

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-15/ethiopia-plans-to-increase-support-to-eritrean-rebel-groups-ministry-says.html

Eritrean History part 2

Treaties and Trade

Somalia's modern history began in the late 19th century, when various European powers began to trade and establish themselves in the area. The British East India Company's desire for unrestricted harbor facilities led to the conclusion of treaties with the sultan of Tajura as early as 1840. It was not until 1886, however that the British gained control over northern Somalia through treaties with various Somali chiefs who were guaranteed British portection. British objectices centered on safegaurding trade links to the east and securing local sources of food and provisions for its coaling station in Aden. The boundary between Ethiopia and British Somaliland was established in 1897 through treaty negotiations between British negotiators and King Menelik.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2863.htm#history