Only 28 percent of Estonians living in Finland want to return home, according to research from the University of Tartu. These findings support a survey from a couple of years ago, which indicated that almost half of resident Estonians like Finland so much they are not even considering a return.
The research was aimed at discovering to what extent Estonians permanently residing in Finland wish to come back to their country of birth.
Of the respondents, 45 percent were sure they would not be going back, 28 percent missed home, and 27 percent could not answer the question.
The study found that an average migrant from Estonia is an under 30-year-old only starting on a career. Just under half had vocational education, and 15 percent were highly educated.
About the same number of men and women come to Finland, but they do so for different motivations. Among men, 47 percent said they did it for financial gain, while 43 percent of women moved for family reasons.
The Estonian newspaper Eesti Päevaleht reported on the research and estimated the number of Estonians permanently living in Finland at 22,000. The official figure from Finnish immigration authorities was almost 29,000 at the end of last year.
Resident Estonians have plenty of opportunities to visit their country of birth as the capital Tallinn is just a short ferry trip away from Helsinki.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
HELSINKI (AP)  Once a timid and compliant member of the European Union, Finland has become one of its most rebellious.
The Finns have made headlines recently by threatening to pull out of a rescue plan for debt-stricken Greece and blocking Romania and Bulgaria from joining Europe’s passport-free travel zone.
The Nordic nation’s dwindling enthusiasm for European integration challenges the cohesion of the 27-nation bloc as it struggles to tackle the debt crisis.
“Finland is stepping out of line. It’s very clearly a new phenomenon,” said Jan Sundberg, professor of political science at the University of Helsinki.
The country of 5 million on the EU’s northeastern border has traditionally been more pro-EU than Nordic neighbors Denmark and Sweden and is the only country in the region to have adopted the euro as its currency.
But Finland’s affection for Europe is waning, with a survey showing that satisfaction with the EU has dropped to 37 percent earlier this year from 42 percent in 2005. Finnish business and policy forum EVA interviewed 1,918 people for the poll in January and February. It had a margin of error of 1-2 percentage points.
In April elections, the euroskeptic and populist True Finns party  which has since changed its name to The Finns  made strong gains in April elections to become the country’s third largest political group.
“Finland is seen as a troublemaker now. It’s a looming, increasing lack of solidarity with the European project,” said Marlene Wind, head of European politics at Copenhagen University. “If this spreads we’ll have a huge problem getting Europe back on track.”
After the election, Europe watched Finland’s government formation talks with grave concern, fearing The Finns would be included and stop Finland’s participation in eurozone bailouts for Greece and Portugal.
Conservative Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen in the end formed a coalition government without The Finns, but with four others, including two euroskeptic parties.
In May, Parliament approved Finnish participation in the Portugal bailout on condition that Finland be granted guarantees, or collateral, for its share of any future eurozone loans.
Last month, Finland and Greece announced they had agreed on such guarantees for Finland’s share of the Greek bailout but leading eurozone members, including Germany, insisted the 17-member currency union would jointly decide the collateral issue.
They said talks would continue with all eurozone members until a joint solution was reached.
Katainen, who is staunchly pro-EU, worried the collateral issue would tarnish the country’s reputation.
“To be honest, this will leave a mark,” Katainen said in a radio interview earlier this month. “But I believe it will be temporary and small, if we find a solution to the guarantees that won’t upset the stability of the euro and damage other eurozone members.”
Nevertheless, he is adamant that Finland will not back down from its collateral demand, or it will opt out of the Greek aid package.
To some extent the shift in attitudes can be traced to Finland’s maturity and self-confidence as an independent nation. Through most of its history it’s been occupied by its neighbors  for 600 years by Sweden and between 1809 and 1917 by Russia, with which it shares an 800-mile (1,300-kilometer) border.
It walked a precarious tightrope during the Cold War as a neutral country, submitting foreign policy decisions for Kremlin’s tacit approval in exchange for its independence.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, Finland jumped at the opportunity to cement ties with the West, joining the EU in 1995 after a referendum in which a clear majority  57 percent  voted in favor of membership.
But the perceived threat from Russia gradually subsided, while Finland’s economy emerged as one of the most stable and well-off in the EU. With Greece and Portugal needing EU bailouts, Finland’s inferiority complex toward Europe has given way to a sense that it’s being forced to pay for the financial missteps of other countries, including Greece and Portugal.
This sentiment is spearheaded by The Finns party.
“It’s about time that we’re able to talk openly about issues that matter, and our Finns party has done just that,” said Toni Paussu, a 41-year-old tour operator who voted for The Finns. “At first we were labeled as swimming against the tide, but no longer. People listen to us now and others too have the courage to speak their mind.”
Last week Finland challenged the authority of Brussels once again, joining the Netherlands in blocking entry by the EU’s newest members, Romania and Bulgaria, to the borderless “Schengen” zone, saying they needed to do more to fight corruption and organized crime.
“We are not being difficult,” Katainen insisted. “Our aim is to make sure that countries that have problems … put them in order before they are accepted into the Schengen zone.”
Simon Tilford, from the London-based Center for European Reform, said he is baffled by Finland’s rebel stance on the collateral issue, but doesn’t believe that it will inspire many others to do the same.
“I think there is a risk of the smaller members, Slovakia and a couple of others maybe attempting that, but the diplomatic and political pressure not to do so will now be very, very fierce,” he said. “It’s very hard to imagine any of the key governments opting for that route. If it was the Netherlands or Germany or France it would bring the whole thing down overnight.”
Tilford said he expects Finland to be forced to a compromise because countries like Germany and the Netherlands “cannot afford for Finland to be allowed to be seen to free-ride on the back of their painfully wrought guarantees.”
Tilford says that Finland knew what it was getting into when it adopted the euro in 2002. “Finland has made its bed, it’s gotta lie in it,” he said.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
SIRTE, Libya (AP)  Families flowed out of Moammar Gadhafi’s besieged hometown Tuesday, exhausted and battered by weeks of hiding from shelling and gunbattles with no meat or vegetables or electricity  but unbowed in their deep distrust of the revolutionaries trying to crush this bastion of the old regime.
The fleeing residents were a sign of how resistance to Libya’s new rulers remains entrenched among those who benefited from Gadhafi’s nearly 42-year rule. Many of those fleeing Sirte said that the stiff defense against revolutionary fighters who have been trying to battle their way into Sirte for three weeks is coming not from Gadhafi’s military units but from residents themselves, volunteering to take up arms.
“This so-called revolution is not worth it,” said Moussa Ahmed, 31, who sat in a line of cars waiting to go through a checkpoint of fighters searching those exiting the city. “But we can’t say anything now; when we meet the revolutionaries we have to hide our feelings.”
The battle for Sirte, on the Mediterranean coast 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli, has become the focal point of the campaign by Libya’s new rulers to break the last remnants of Gadhafi’s rule. More than six weeks after the then-rebels swept into Tripoli and ousted the longtime leader, Gadhafi remains on the run, his whereabouts unknown, and his supporters remain in control not only of Sirte but also the city of Bani Walid and parts of the desert south.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday that the NATO air mission over Libya can’t end and the political process can’t begin until Sirte is taken. Libya’s de facto Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said Monday that Sirte must fall before the transitional leadership can declare victory and set a timeline for elections.
The fight has been grueling. After three weeks, revolutionary forces have managed to get just over a mile (two kilometers) into the city. Heavily armed Gadhafi loyalists are holed up in the Ouagadougou Conference Center, a grandiose hall built by Gadhafi in the city center for international summits, and in the city hospital, revolutionary commanders said.
On Tuesday, fighters eased shelling to allow residents to escape, and hundreds of cars filled with men, women and children lined up at checkpoints at Sirte’s eastern exit. Mothers carrying babies in blankets stood by the side of the road, their children clutching their robes, as revolutionary fighters rifled through their cars, searching through mattresses, clothes and other belongings for hidden weapons.
“We haven’t had vegetables or meat to eat for over a month,” said one of the mothers, Attiya Mohammed. “The water is polluted, and forget about electricity  it’s been out since the middle of August.”
The city was a war zone, she said, buildings pockmarked with bullet holes and parts of the main hospital demolished.
Like many, she had been afraid to step outside her home. “The city was our prison,” she said. “If you left your house you risked being shot and killed.”
There was a palpable dislike between those fleeing and the fighters searching through their belongings, though there was no visible harassment and families said they were well treated, some given food and water. During his rule, Gadhafi turned Sirte into virtually a second capital, pouring in investments and giving residents prominent positions. As a result, support for the regime ran high  and many of those fleeing were dismayed at the fall of the old order.
Many of the fighters besieging Sirte are from the neighboring city of Misrata, which rose up against Gadhafi early and was brutalized under a bloody, weekslong siege by his forces during the revolt that began in mid-February. As a result, there is little love lost between the two cities.
One Misrata revolutionary at the checkpoint, al-Hussein al-Sireiti, said they find four or five cars a day with hidden weapons.
“We also check for people with bullet injuries, because that means they likely were fighting for Gadhafi,” he said. They also search for those on a list of known Gadhafi loyalists wanted for interrogation, he said.
Among those fleeing, Fatima al-Gadhafi  from the same tribe the ousted leader  bent her head over her five-month old baby girl and sobbed softly.
“They wanted a revolution  so do it in Misrata and leave the rest of us alone,” she said.
Wearing a black headscarf, her face freckled from the sun, she said she had never met revolutionary forces before Tuesday as she exited Sirte. She told one fighter to stop shooting his rifle so near her family’s car, but he refused.
“He said Moammar used to do worse than this, but I never saw anything bad from the old regime. We lived in safety and peace always,” she said.
Halima Salem, 44, sat patiently in her son’s pickup truck while he showed their papers to fighters at the checkpoint. The truck bed was filled with blankets, appliances and clothes. In the seat behind her, four birdcages were filled with colorful love birds and canaries chirping away oblivious of sound of shelling.
“I couldn’t leave them behind, they’re like one of the family,” she exclaimed, smiling at her birds.
She said she had been reluctant to abandon her home because gangs have been looting houses  she wasn’t sure what side they were loyal to, if either. During shelling, she hid under the bed in her master bedroom, clutching the youngest children. Finally, after bad shelling the night before, her sons forced her to pack up.
“How can it be that Libyans are doing this to us? Aren’t we the same people?” she lamented, shaking her head. “I feel bad for our (former Gadhafi) army … They were honorable men with high morals. And now this chaos.”
She and many others on the way out said volunteer residents were fighting in the city’s defense. “They are all normal men,” said Moussa Ahmed, who was leaving to undergo treatment for a kidney stone, but said he would return to Sirte as soon as his could.
“This so-called revolution is just not worth anything, not worth the blood of Libyans that has been spilled,” said a friend who was driving Ahmed. He refused to give his name for fear of reprisals.
Staffers from the International Committee of the Red Cross crossed the front lines into Sirte and delivered urgently needed oxygen and other medical supplies to the hospital Monday. Aid workers were providing food for thousands who fled.
At the checkpoint out of Sirte, fighters propped up hoods to look around the engines for hidden weapons or ammunition. They piled mattresses, blankets, food and children’s toys by the side of the road.
Fighters passed around a bottle of colorless liquid pulled from one pile of blankets.
“Is it alcohol?” one fighter asked.
It turned out to be eau de toilette, and the fighters gave it back to the family.
“I don’t really care if they drink,” said al-Sireiti. “As long as there is no weapons in the car, the drinking is between him and his God.”
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The Education Department of the City of Helsinki is currently looking into whether or not mandatory education is being implemented in the case of the children of foreign Roma beggars in the city. Finnish law makes it the responsibility of local authorities to monitor the implementation of mandatory education for children who reside in the municipality. Marjo Kyllönen, head of education at the Education Department, notes that mandatory education does not mean that there would be a legal obligation to attend a school. However, officials are required to oversee the implementation of education if the children do not go to a regular school.
Kyllönen says that the city’s lawyers have been examining whether or not the supervisory obligation is being fulfilled with respect to the Roma children. “We are in a grey area here. There is no clear interpretation of what constitutes a permanent residence. What is decisive is how long they have been here.†Kylllönen feels that the matter should be examined at the national level, at the National Board of Education, and the Ministry of Education.
The Ministry of Education knows of a few cases in which children who have come to Finland as asylum seekers have been denied a place in a school because they have not been seen to be subject to mandatory education. “They have been individual casesâ€Â, says Maria Biskop, a high-ranking official at the Ministry of Education. She notes that mandatory education applies to all children who live in Finland on a permanent basis. “According to this, the children of Roma beggars would not be subject to mandatory education if they are not registered as residents of the municipalityâ€Â, Biskop says.
If mandatory education is seen to apply, the children should be allocated a spot in a nearby school. Kyllönen says that because of the lack of knowledge of Finnish, the children would probably be placed in preparatory classes. “At present there is plenty of space in such classes. Pupils could be taken there now, if anyone were to registerâ€Â, Kyllönen says. However, she adds that she does not know of any foreign Roma children in Helsinki who would be of school age.
Mandatory education for children living in Finland begins in the year that the child turns seven years old. It continues until the child has passed the comprehensive school level, or when ten years have elapsed – whichever comes first.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Helsinki. Finland decided to raise the status of the Palestine General Delegation located in Finland, a press release from Finnish foreign ministry said on Monday, Xinhua informed.
Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja informed his Palestinian colleague Riyad al-Malki of the decision in a letter dated 30 September 2011. Tuomioja said that the decision communicates support for the Palestinian state-building efforts, which the Palestinians have carried out for the past several years.
The measures to be taken include changing the name from “Palestine General Delegation” to “Palestine Mission” and granting the head of the mission the right to use the title of ambassador. Besides, the head of the Palestine Mission would have to present a letter of appointment to the President of the Republic of Finland upon arriving in Finland from now on.
Apart from Finland, several other European countries have also taken similar actions to raise the status of Palestinian representations in recent years.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Following the tremendous success that the movie ‘Damage’ has been recording at the cinemas and the outpouring of accolades that it has received from movie lovers, the executive producer Uche Jombo has come out to say that she is proud at the turnout for ‘Damage’ at the cinemas.
‘Damage’ was premiered in Lagos on the 31st of July 2011 at the Silverbird Galleria amidst a constellation of stars and celebrities. It arrived in cinemas across Nigeria on August 5, 2011 and has since then been getting a lot of patronage from movie lovers across the federation.
Uche Jombo who also acted in the movie alongside Tonto Dike, Basorge Tariah Jr and Kalu Ikeagwu, were all in the Garden City of Port Harcourt for a meet and greet with fans which turned out to be an unforgettable occasion as the fans trooped out in large droves to interact with their favorite stars.
The movie ‘Damage’ presents the case of love and domestic violence in such a manner that has never been seen in a movie before. ‘Damage’ is about the story of a man (Kalu Ikeagwu) and his wife (Uche Jombo) who loves each other immensely, but their way of presenting this love to each other is by engaging in violent fights almost on a daily basis, and this has a serious psychological effect on their children.
When asked how she felt about her work, Uche Jombo stated, I am very proud of what we have achieved, there is no better word to describe how I feel when I see the turnout of people coming to watch the movie and am sure that all those involved in the production of the film would definitely feel the same way.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
NEW ORLEANS (AP)  It sounds like a horror movie: Biting ants invade by the millions. A camper’s metal walls bulge from the pressure of ants nesting behind them. A circle of poison stops them for only a day, and then a fresh horde shows up, bringing babies. Stand in the yard, and in seconds ants cover your shoes.
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It’s an extreme example of what can happen when the ants  which also can disable huge industrial plants  go unchecked. Controlling them can cost thousands of dollars. But the story is real, told by someone who’s been studying ants for a decade.
“Months later, I could close my eyes and see them moving,” said Joe MacGown, who curates the ant, mosquito and scarab collections at the Mississippi State Entomological Museum at Mississippi State University.
He’s been back to check on the hairy crazy ants. They’re still around. The occupant isn’t.
The flea-sized critters are called crazy because each forager scrambles randomly at a speed that your average picnic ant, marching one by one, reaches only in video fast-forward. They’re called hairy because of fuzz that, to the naked eye, makes their abdomens look less glossy than those of their slower, bigger cousins.
And they’re on the move in Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. In Texas, they’ve invaded homes and industrial complexes, urban areas and rural areas. They travel in cargo containers, hay bales, potted plants, motorcycles and moving vans. They overwhelm beehives  one Texas beekeeper was losing 100 a year in 2009. They short out industrial equipment.
If one gets electrocuted, its death releases a chemical cue to attack a threat to the colony, said Roger Gold, an entomology professor at Texas A&M.
“The other ants rush in. Before long, you have a ball of ants,” he said.
A computer system controlling pipeline valves shorted out twice in about 35 days, but monthly treatments there now keep the bugs at bay, said exterminator Tom Rasberry, who found the first Texas specimens of the species in the Houston area in 2002.
“We’re kind of going for overkill on that particular site because so much is at stake,” he said. “If that shuts down, they could literally shut down an entire chemical plant that costs millions of dollars.”
And, compared to other ants, these need overkill. For instance, Gold said, if 100,000 are killed by pesticides, millions more will follow.
“I did a test site with a product early on and applied the product to a half-acre … In 30 days I had two inches of dead ants covering the entire half-acre,” Rasberry said. “It looked like the top of the dead ants was just total movement from all the live ants on top of the dead ants.”
But the Mississippi story is an exception, Rasberry said. Control is expensive, ranging from $275 to thousands of dollars a year for the 1,000 homes he’s treated in the past month. Still, he’s never seen the ants force someone out of their home, he said.
The ants don’t dig out anthills and prefer to nest in sheltered, moist spots. In MacGown’s extreme example in Waveland, Miss., the house was out in woods with many fallen trees and piles of debris. They will eat just about anything  plant or animal.
The ants are probably native to South America, MacGown said. But they were recorded in the Caribbean by the late 19th century, said Jeff Keularts, an extension associate professor at the University of the Virgin Islands. That’s how they got the nickname “Caribbean crazy ants.” They’ve also become known as Rasberry crazy ants, after the exterminator.
Now they’re making their way through parts of the Southeast. Florida had the ants in about five counties in 2000 but today is up to 20, MacGown said. Nine years after first being spotted in Texas, that state now has them in 18 counties. So far, they have been found in two counties in Mississippi and at least one Louisiana parish.
Texas has temporarily approved two chemicals in its effort to control the ants, and other states are looking at ways to curb their spread.
Controlling them can be tricky. Rasberry said he’s worked jobs where other exterminators had already tried and failed. Gold said some infestations have been traced to hay bales hauled from one place to another for livestock left without grass by the drought that has plagued Texas.
MacGown said he hopes their numbers are curbed in Louisiana and Mississippi before it’s too late.
The hairy crazy ants do wipe out one pest  fire ants  but that’s cold comfort.
“I prefer fire ants to these,” MacGown said. “I can avoid a fire ant colony.”
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
John Okafor has become something of a hardened comedian who interprets scripts in his own wayâ€â€most times to a level that critics have described as ‘hilarious imbecility’.
In fact the Enugu state born actor who is popular as Mr. Ibu interprets his role so well that his teeming fans often find it difficult to draw the line between Okafor and the role he plays in movies. Today the former refrigerator technician, hairdresser, factory worker and itinerant photographer has become very successful as an actor.
A devoted disciple of the genre and a gifted humour creator, Mr. Ibu who wandered into acting by chance, has grown immensely popular that his biggest problem now is privacy and relaxation. ‘I can hardly go anywhere without being mobbed. I have become a public property’ he says
The bulky actor also found time to reflect on the passing away of Samuede Efeimwonkiyeke a.k.a Sam Loco Efe.
Can you still recall the journey here?
Well the journey here has been okay. I thank God for bringing me this far. I started all this as a joke and in fact, got into it by chance. But it started for me even though I didn’t do it as something I wanted to take as a profession from primary school, all through the secondary school and even when I entered higher institution. So, it is a long time that I started being a fool. I recall my teachers asking me often if I was alright, but I always told them that it is a gift that God gave me to make people happy and forget their sorrows and pain. And that gift has not only opened so many doors for me but has put food on my table. I may not be a millionaire, but am very comfortable.
But even though God gave you the talent as you claimed, there must be someone who inspired your incursion?
Yes my grandfather. He is one man who inspired me. Back then in Eziokwe in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State where I come from, my granddad used to entertain the villagers with jokes. He was like a local champion. So I took after him somehow and to make a difference, I became an idiot who made people laugh from the way I talked, walked, appear and so on. People just start laughing once they see me. Now, people don’t take me serious even when I am serious. It is a problem in a way, but I have devised how to manage that problem. I just begin to cry and when they know that I am not joking, they rush to me.
Once, you mentioned that the late Sam Loco was a heavy influence on you?
Yes he was. I mean, apart from my grandfather, there were other people I encountered on screen that influenced my incursion and the late, oh, I hate to describe him as the late, Sam Loco was one of them. I consider him one of our greatest and irreplaceable actors. I still did not believe he is gone. He is one man that played my father consistently in movies. If I have done 20 jobs, he played my father in 19 and that made us very close. I keep on talking with him even on phone because we have a project together. We were supposed to be at the American Embassy for our visa interview and I called him to give him this information, but no one picked the call. When I called again, someone picked and told me that he had fever the previous night and was still sleeping and will talk to me later. Then not long after, I started receiving calls from people about his death. He will be sorely missed. He was a jolly good fellowâ€â€-a master of the craft. I am still trying to walk out of the shock of losing him.
Okay, let us leave that now and talk about your staying power and why you are devoted to just playing comic roles?
If I tell you that I know something else apart from God, then I am a liar. I attribute it to God and God alone. He provides strength. As for comic roles, I am a very flexible and versatile actor but funny enough I have been stereotyped into playing comic roles. I always want to take up other roles but it is not something that I can dictate. I take on roles that I am given. But I still believe in my ability to take up any role.
And the name Mr. Ibu has replaced your given names?
It has and it is not funny even though I am enjoying it. Once someone came around where I live and was asking about John Okafor and people were just wondering who he was looking for; but as soon as he mentioned Mr. Ibu, they pointed to where I lived. And funny enough, I have been answering that name Mr. Ibu before Andy Chukwu wrote that script. He only added a Mister to the normal name they have been calling me and that film turned out to be something else because I was completely an idiot in that filmâ€â€a very stupid animal. In fact, the character was an idiot, not me. But Ibu came about because of my size. Ibu means load, something with some weight and I have considerable weight as you can see.
So, has acting been very rewarding?
Well, it depends on what you mean by rewarding. If it is being rich, well I am not a rich man, but I am not hungry. God has been so wonderful. People love me so much. Do you know I get cars and money gifts from here and there? People stop me on the way to dash me things because I have brought joy to them. One man stopped me once and dashed me a large sum of money because according to him, I always entertain him and his family. That is the joy. The only problem I have with the whole thing is that people don’t take me serious when I am serious.
If I am crying now, people will think I am joking. If I stop a lady on the street for instance, she will just say ‘hey Ibu, abi you wan use me act again’ and the thing wey dey hungry me go still dey hungry me. I no go talk go that side again. I will respect myself and move on. But I am very happy doing this. I enjoy my stay in the industry so much and I will keep staying, especially now that I consider it my main constituency. I don’t think there is anything that I will get involved in now that will give me as much as the joy that acting has given me.
And my family is happy with what I am doing. They love me to the last. They keep praying for me to succeed and I will never forget them. My mum who is over 80 years is my greatest fan. I love that woman and my family to the core. I love my children too. They answer Ibu more than me. They have been enjoying the fame that comes with this.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
I wonder how many Nigerians read a report in the online edition of Next newspaper titled “Four African Countries Will Achieve MDGs by 2015â€Â. One suspects that some Nigerians who didn’t see the report must wonder whether their country made the list of four.
Perish the thought!
Next’s account cited a World Bank report issued at the annual general meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. It revealed that, of the fifty odd countries in Africa, only “Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Malawi will likely achieve most of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 or soon thereafter.†The document also gave credit to three African countries – Cape Verde, Rwanda and Zambia – for being among the 10 economies in the world that most improved the ease of doing business in 2010.
The Millennium Development Goals – for that’s what MDG stands for – are a set of objectives adopted by world leaders in 2000 with the aim of achieving significant improvements in socio-economic indices. The eight goals include the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; the achievement of universal primary education; the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women; the reduction of child mortality and improvement of maternal health. In other words, the MDGs were conceived as a global tool for combating the scourge of disease and poverty. Each country had fifteen years to meet the goals.
Some countries went to work, determined to meet – or even surpass – the targets. These committed nations, with Brazil as a leading example, were fueled by the desire to transform their citizens as well as environments. Other countries – predictably Nigeria and the majority of African states – seem to have gone to sleep, determined to show up, not on the success lists, but on the rolls of the nations that can’t, won’t – or don’t care.
The difference is clear. On any score, the World Bank’s report is sobering, and shameful. The four success stories – the exception that proves the rule that African nations are still deeply mired in excruciating poverty – are products of “accelerated growth and progress on social indicators.†Four success stories in the midst of close to fifty failures is a portrait of abject failure. It’s no surprise that the World Bank implied that the four countries’ impressive showing served to highlight “serious development challenges [that] remain in Africa.â€Â
It’s true, the report contained (the faintest) signs of progress. It found that the maternal mortality rate in Africa had declined by 26 percent between 1990 and 2009; even so, as many as 645 women per 100,000 still die during pregnancy and childbirth. It also noted a slight dip in child mortality and stabilization of HIV infection rates. The most dramatic positive showing is in the area of direct investment flows. In 2010, African nations – with estimated receipts of $21.5 billion – surpassed such investments that went to India.
Nigerians (as well as other Africans) ought to be outraged that their country did not make enough progress to earn a spot on the list of the few African nations that stayed awake to their responsibilities. Imagine the salutary impact that Nigeria would make in West Africa (and beyond) if it were to discover and embrace its mission – rather than persist in the prodigal habit of betraying it. Many Nigerians are jealous of Ghana’s steady, discernable progress.
If Nigeria were in Ghana’s position, then its strides would have energized not only its 150 million citizens but also millions from neighboring countries. The Nigerian president, governors, legislators, ministers, commissioners and local government councilors are in the top tier of the most highly paid officials in the world. The president, governors and some ministers stow away hundreds of millions of naira each month in the scam called security votes – funds that are frequently and easily pocketed because, as a rule, they are never to be accounted for. Members of the National Assembly – senators as well as representatives – cart await millions of dollars each year in the name of “constituency allowances,†another entrenched scam. And one hasn’t counted the billions of naira embezzled through such schemes as fraudulent or over-inflated contracts.
Yet, for all that they are paid and all that they steal, most Nigerian officials won’t even spare a decent hour in a day to spend thinking about their dispossessed fellows and to figure out how to solve the nation’s manifold crises. It is as if the country wastes its scarce resources on certified mediocrities, men and women so bereft of vision that they don’t realize how ridiculous they look in the eyes of the world – and for all their loot.
A Nigeria run by its least visionary and enlightened elements – men and women whose imagination is fixed on the size of their bank accounts – is in no shape to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. How is the country to reduce its health woes when hospitals are not just ill equipped, they are often not equipped at all? With Nigerian officials (and their families) skipping off to Europe, Asia or North America for medical treatment, who is left to think about the hapless condition of Nigerians beset by all manner of diseases?
I must illustrate with my home state of Anambra, a place where one man has instituted propaganda as the substitute for governance. A few weeks ago, former Commonwealth Secretary General Emeka Anyaoku and a few others gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the creation of Anambra State. Mr. Anyaoku, who chaired the event, was content to cheer Governor Peter Obi, describing him in superlative terms. Yet, Mr. Anyaoku knows – he must know – that doctors in the state have been on strike for more than six months in a dispute over modest increments in their pay. Is it not a scandal that any government would treat its people so callously, indifferent to something as critical as their health?
One wondered whether Mr. Anyaoku would be satisfied with the state of affairs in Anambra were he compelled to seek medical attention in the state? If enlightened Nigerians would not raise their expectations of those who govern; if they would not advocate for decent healthcare, better education and improved lives for all citizens; if they would not voice their outrage at a situation where the lowliest citizens are denied access to affordable medical care, then it is no surprise that Nigeria now lags far behind Ghana, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Zambia and Malawi – and many more African countries – in measurements of quality of life.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Scott boldly predicted Saturday before votes were counted that the winner of the Republican Party of Florida straw poll would win that state’s primary, the primary winner would be the party’s nominee and that nominee would beat President Obama in November 2012.
Cain, the former Godfather’s Pizza chief executive from Georgia, pulled an upset in the test vote, capturing the support of 986 delegates, more than double the 410 votes for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the closest runner-up.
“He can win. He can beat Obama,” said Cynthia Henderson, president of the Tallahassee Republican Women’s Club Federated, who said she cast her vote for Cain.
“Now he has the motivation to raise money. He went toe-to-toe with everybody and made a difference. It will have to help him. It’s fun.”
While all declared candidates were on the ballot, the first-tier candidates did not compete.
Scott repeatedly said the straw poll would propel a candidate to the nomination.
“Winning the straw poll is important, and I think it is very, very significant,” Cain said.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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