Essential The Africa the Media Doesn't Tell You About
- Thread starter TommyHilltrigga
- Start date
Red Shield
Global Domination
Europe would have a total stranglehold at that point. Those countries are smart to reject those EPA deals
Anger over Somalia's khat import ban
Ewurama Kodjo with AFP 09/09 - 00:24
Somalia’s khat ban has angered growers of the crop as well as traders and consumers.
There’s been a lull in the khat business since Somalia’s government announced a surprise import ban this week.
Hassan Ganey a consumer of the stimulant says he knows, “that khat hurts the economy, so I agree with the government to stop khat imports , but they can not stop them completely, they should do it gradually. “
Adam Sharif is already experiencing withdrawal symptoms. “Since this morning I have not been able to get up and go to work. In fact I can’t work without khat because it gives me the strength to work longer”, he says.
The red-stemmed, green-leafed plant is a stimulant which works in a similar manner as a couple of cups of espresso.
Chewing khat is an afternoon activity among Somali men but it is increasingly being abused with addicts commonly spending all their money on bunches of leaves and wasting hours in a stupor.
Khat is banned in the US, Canada and most of Europe – all places with large diaspora Somali communities.
But no government or authority has ever succeeded in banning it in Somalia.
While it is enjoyed in Somalia, khat is grown in neighbouring Ethiopia and Kenya, both of which have large farming communities relying on its export for their livelihoods.
No explanation has been offered by the Somali government for the ban something which has angered dealers even more.
“I’ve been selling khat for a long time. I use the income to pay my kids fees”, says Halima Dahir, an importer.
Abdi Hassan Diriye is a vendor in the market of Meru “We’ve not had Khat today and did not have it yesterday. Before yeasterday, once we are supplied I manage to give money to my family for their food for the day but I have not given anything to my family since yesterday. I call on the Somali government, the Minister of Aviation, the president of Somalia, Prime Minister and everyone who is concerned to create jobs or to lift the ban on khat.”
The decision has also upset Kenyan growers who have watched their crops, which must be transported fresh before the leaves wilt , languish in sacks.
Tonnes of the plant are going to waste while the supply chain has ground to a halt but dealers hope things will be back to normal in a few days.
Anger over Somalia's khat import ban
Ewurama Kodjo with AFP 09/09 - 00:24
Somalia’s khat ban has angered growers of the crop as well as traders and consumers.
There’s been a lull in the khat business since Somalia’s government announced a surprise import ban this week.
Hassan Ganey a consumer of the stimulant says he knows, “that khat hurts the economy, so I agree with the government to stop khat imports , but they can not stop them completely, they should do it gradually. “
Adam Sharif is already experiencing withdrawal symptoms. “Since this morning I have not been able to get up and go to work. In fact I can’t work without khat because it gives me the strength to work longer”, he says.
The red-stemmed, green-leafed plant is a stimulant which works in a similar manner as a couple of cups of espresso.
Chewing khat is an afternoon activity among Somali men but it is increasingly being abused with addicts commonly spending all their money on bunches of leaves and wasting hours in a stupor.
Khat is banned in the US, Canada and most of Europe – all places with large diaspora Somali communities.
But no government or authority has ever succeeded in banning it in Somalia.
While it is enjoyed in Somalia, khat is grown in neighbouring Ethiopia and Kenya, both of which have large farming communities relying on its export for their livelihoods.
No explanation has been offered by the Somali government for the ban something which has angered dealers even more.
“I’ve been selling khat for a long time. I use the income to pay my kids fees”, says Halima Dahir, an importer.
Abdi Hassan Diriye is a vendor in the market of Meru “We’ve not had Khat today and did not have it yesterday. Before yeasterday, once we are supplied I manage to give money to my family for their food for the day but I have not given anything to my family since yesterday. I call on the Somali government, the Minister of Aviation, the president of Somalia, Prime Minister and everyone who is concerned to create jobs or to lift the ban on khat.”
The decision has also upset Kenyan growers who have watched their crops, which must be transported fresh before the leaves wilt , languish in sacks.
Tonnes of the plant are going to waste while the supply chain has ground to a halt but dealers hope things will be back to normal in a few days.
Anger over Somalia's khat import ban
fukking buffons needs to get there shyt togetherAnger over Somalia's khat import ban
Ewurama Kodjo with AFP 09/09 - 00:24
Somalia’s khat ban has angered growers of the crop as well as traders and consumers.
There’s been a lull in the khat business since Somalia’s government announced a surprise import ban this week.
Hassan Ganey a consumer of the stimulant says he knows, “that khat hurts the economy, so I agree with the government to stop khat imports , but they can not stop them completely, they should do it gradually. “
Adam Sharif is already experiencing withdrawal symptoms. “Since this morning I have not been able to get up and go to work. In fact I can’t work without khat because it gives me the strength to work longer”, he says.
The red-stemmed, green-leafed plant is a stimulant which works in a similar manner as a couple of cups of espresso.
Chewing khat is an afternoon activity among Somali men but it is increasingly being abused with addicts commonly spending all their money on bunches of leaves and wasting hours in a stupor.
Khat is banned in the US, Canada and most of Europe – all places with large diaspora Somali communities.
But no government or authority has ever succeeded in banning it in Somalia.
While it is enjoyed in Somalia, khat is grown in neighbouring Ethiopia and Kenya, both of which have large farming communities relying on its export for their livelihoods.
No explanation has been offered by the Somali government for the ban something which has angered dealers even more.
“I’ve been selling khat for a long time. I use the income to pay my kids fees”, says Halima Dahir, an importer.
Abdi Hassan Diriye is a vendor in the market of Meru “We’ve not had Khat today and did not have it yesterday. Before yeasterday, once we are supplied I manage to give money to my family for their food for the day but I have not given anything to my family since yesterday. I call on the Somali government, the Minister of Aviation, the president of Somalia, Prime Minister and everyone who is concerned to create jobs or to lift the ban on khat.”
The decision has also upset Kenyan growers who have watched their crops, which must be transported fresh before the leaves wilt , languish in sacks.
Tonnes of the plant are going to waste while the supply chain has ground to a halt but dealers hope things will be back to normal in a few days.
Anger over Somalia's khat import ban
Fox
Pro
Heard about a 5.9 earthquake in the great lake regions... weird
How African countries lose billions in tax revenue through hidden cross-border trade
12 SEP 2016 12:00WILLIAM GUMEDE
0000
African countries will need to co-operate by collectively insisting that multinationals do country-by-country reporting of activities, and exchanging tax information and sharing capacity.
African and developing countries are losing billions in tax revenue because of hidden or under-reported cross-border trading between different branches and subsidiaries of multinational companies.
The Africa Tax Outlook, released this month, compiled by the Africa Tax Administration Forum, warns that critical low tax revenue is undermining African economies.
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) estimated that 60 percent of international trade happens within, rather than between, multinational companies. Different branches and affiliates of the same global company trade goods, services and pursue financial transactions called “controlled transactions”.
The practice of transfer pricing happens when affiliates of the same company in different countries trade with each other. When the global company put a price on the trade between its affiliates and subsidiaries, it is called “transfer pricing”.
More frequently, the prices of goods, services and financial transactions between the affiliates and subsidiaries of global companies are falsely dropped or hiked to shift profits between countries in a bid to escape paying taxes.
The price of trade, services and goods between subsidiaries of companies are supposed to be set at the rate that the open market would have charged. However, subsidiaries and affiliates of global companies often set very low rates for goods, services and trade between in order not to pay taxes.
Companies shift goods, services and money to subsidiaries and affiliates in countries where the tax rate is lower. Companies also use transfer pricing to either overprice imports or underprice exports to bypass limits developing and African countries set on companies repatriating their profits.
Many global companies shift their income away from where it is generated to countries where the tax rates are lower. More recently the UK settled with Google to get the company to pay £130m ($170m) back in lost transfer pricing taxes.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Transfer Pricing Guidelines states: “Transfer prices are significant for both taxpayers and tax administrations because they determine in large part the income and expenses, and therefore taxable profits, of associated enterprises in different tax jurisdictions”.
Unctad argues that moving profits out of African and developing countries lowers the countries’ GDP, because it reduces the profit part of value-add (which GDP measures) to the economy. Furthermore, the shifting of profits also reduces the amount of capital available in the developing or African country for reinvestment in productive activities.
The OECD and G20 have, as part of their Beps initiative, set out 15 measures to tighten transfer pricing documents requirements. The OECD has developed a 15-point action plan to ensure that profits of companies are taxed at the point where the economic activities creating the profits are achieved and where the value is generated.
The OECD and the UN Tax Committee have pushed for the “arm’s-length” principle in which companies must pay a fair share of tax in the countries where they generate their profits.
In the “arm’s length principle”, one compares the payment from cross-border transactions within the multinationals with the payment from transactions made between independent companies in roughly similar circumstances.
The UN has also published a transfer pricing practice manual for developing countries, which uses the “arm’s length principle”.
The UK more recently criticised Google and Amazon for alleged transfer pricing. Australia has passed transfer pricing laws which compels companies to pay their “fair share” of tax.
The onus is on the developing or African country governments to regulate transfer pricing – and not on the developed country from where the global company originates.
Many developing and African countries do not have the capacity or the resources to monitor and regulate transfer pricing.
China has also introduced transfer pricing laws which compel companies investing there to adhere to the same transfer pricing rules as operating within the EU.
Brazil has introduced transfer pricing laws which set price limits for deductible cost linked to inbound trade between company subsidiaries and minimum income limits for outbound trade.
Nevertheless, some African countries, such as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa, have more recently tightened laws to police transfer pricing. South Africa set up a tax review committee under the leadership of Judge Dennis Davis (the Davis Committee) to look at tax reforms, including tightening transfer pricing rules.
Last December year the South African Revenue Services (Sars) issued a draft rules to tighten transfer pricing, based on the OECD’s transfer pricing guidelines. The rules compel global companies to keep more detailed and compulsory records of their transfer pricing transactions if the companies have a consolidated turnover of over R1 billion.
The OECD has proposed that to deal more effectively with transfer pricing, countries must compel companies to have a “master file” with standardised information about the subsidiaries, affiliates and entities of the global company; a “local file” which sets out the transactions at the country level; and a comparative country level report which sets out the allocation of income and taxes paid and the extent of the operations.
The African Tax Administration Forum has identified transfer pricing as a critical issue for African countries.
South Africa in July 2013 set up a tax review committee, headed by Judge Dennis Davis (the Davis Committee) to including looking at transfer pricing. The South African Revenue Services (Sars) has increased its monitoring of transfer pricing and have instituted regular transfer pricing audits.
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have also recently introduced transfer pricing laws, based on the OECD’s transfer pricing guidelines or the UN’s Transfer Pricing Manual, to stop revenue lost through foreign companies shifting costs between affiliates to avoid paying tax.
In 2008, the UN Committee of Experts on International Co-operation on Tax Matters said developing and African countries faced “tension” between “enforcing their legitimate taxing rights while ensuring open, transparent, investment-friendly and fair environment for investors. The skills and informational gaps in many developing countries exacerbate these difficulties.”
In practice, the “arm’s-length principle” is not easy to implement. A report by researchers from Christian Aid pointed out that companies can organise their business in such a way that “allocates risk and value to minimise tax liabilities”.
Multinationals have vast resources compared to African and developing countries to make seemingly valid arguments for their pricing structures or obscuring them. For another, it is also very difficult to allocate the price of intangibles such as how brand value should be appraised.
The UN Committee of Experts on International Co-operation in Tax Matters has pointed out that many developing countries lack “comparable data for calculating costs or resale prices of goods and services”.
South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said African countries needed to focus on increasing the capacity and integrity of tax and customs agencies, as well as on strengthening tax legislation to better deal with the abuse of tax.
Many African countries lack appropriate transfer pricing laws, and if they do have, they may not have the resources to implement them. African countries will need to co-operate by collectively insisting that multinationals do country-by-country reporting of activities, and exchanging tax information and sharing capacity.
*This article was published on Democracy Works. To view the article on their website click here.
12 SEP 2016 12:00WILLIAM GUMEDE
0000
African countries will need to co-operate by collectively insisting that multinationals do country-by-country reporting of activities, and exchanging tax information and sharing capacity.
African and developing countries are losing billions in tax revenue because of hidden or under-reported cross-border trading between different branches and subsidiaries of multinational companies.
The Africa Tax Outlook, released this month, compiled by the Africa Tax Administration Forum, warns that critical low tax revenue is undermining African economies.
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) estimated that 60 percent of international trade happens within, rather than between, multinational companies. Different branches and affiliates of the same global company trade goods, services and pursue financial transactions called “controlled transactions”.
The practice of transfer pricing happens when affiliates of the same company in different countries trade with each other. When the global company put a price on the trade between its affiliates and subsidiaries, it is called “transfer pricing”.
More frequently, the prices of goods, services and financial transactions between the affiliates and subsidiaries of global companies are falsely dropped or hiked to shift profits between countries in a bid to escape paying taxes.
The price of trade, services and goods between subsidiaries of companies are supposed to be set at the rate that the open market would have charged. However, subsidiaries and affiliates of global companies often set very low rates for goods, services and trade between in order not to pay taxes.
Companies shift goods, services and money to subsidiaries and affiliates in countries where the tax rate is lower. Companies also use transfer pricing to either overprice imports or underprice exports to bypass limits developing and African countries set on companies repatriating their profits.
Many global companies shift their income away from where it is generated to countries where the tax rates are lower. More recently the UK settled with Google to get the company to pay £130m ($170m) back in lost transfer pricing taxes.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Transfer Pricing Guidelines states: “Transfer prices are significant for both taxpayers and tax administrations because they determine in large part the income and expenses, and therefore taxable profits, of associated enterprises in different tax jurisdictions”.
Unctad argues that moving profits out of African and developing countries lowers the countries’ GDP, because it reduces the profit part of value-add (which GDP measures) to the economy. Furthermore, the shifting of profits also reduces the amount of capital available in the developing or African country for reinvestment in productive activities.
- READ MORE: The craft of tax avoidance
The OECD and G20 have, as part of their Beps initiative, set out 15 measures to tighten transfer pricing documents requirements. The OECD has developed a 15-point action plan to ensure that profits of companies are taxed at the point where the economic activities creating the profits are achieved and where the value is generated.
The OECD and the UN Tax Committee have pushed for the “arm’s-length” principle in which companies must pay a fair share of tax in the countries where they generate their profits.
In the “arm’s length principle”, one compares the payment from cross-border transactions within the multinationals with the payment from transactions made between independent companies in roughly similar circumstances.
The UN has also published a transfer pricing practice manual for developing countries, which uses the “arm’s length principle”.
The UK more recently criticised Google and Amazon for alleged transfer pricing. Australia has passed transfer pricing laws which compels companies to pay their “fair share” of tax.
The onus is on the developing or African country governments to regulate transfer pricing – and not on the developed country from where the global company originates.
Many developing and African countries do not have the capacity or the resources to monitor and regulate transfer pricing.
China has also introduced transfer pricing laws which compel companies investing there to adhere to the same transfer pricing rules as operating within the EU.
Brazil has introduced transfer pricing laws which set price limits for deductible cost linked to inbound trade between company subsidiaries and minimum income limits for outbound trade.
Nevertheless, some African countries, such as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa, have more recently tightened laws to police transfer pricing. South Africa set up a tax review committee under the leadership of Judge Dennis Davis (the Davis Committee) to look at tax reforms, including tightening transfer pricing rules.
Last December year the South African Revenue Services (Sars) issued a draft rules to tighten transfer pricing, based on the OECD’s transfer pricing guidelines. The rules compel global companies to keep more detailed and compulsory records of their transfer pricing transactions if the companies have a consolidated turnover of over R1 billion.
The OECD has proposed that to deal more effectively with transfer pricing, countries must compel companies to have a “master file” with standardised information about the subsidiaries, affiliates and entities of the global company; a “local file” which sets out the transactions at the country level; and a comparative country level report which sets out the allocation of income and taxes paid and the extent of the operations.
The African Tax Administration Forum has identified transfer pricing as a critical issue for African countries.
South Africa in July 2013 set up a tax review committee, headed by Judge Dennis Davis (the Davis Committee) to including looking at transfer pricing. The South African Revenue Services (Sars) has increased its monitoring of transfer pricing and have instituted regular transfer pricing audits.
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have also recently introduced transfer pricing laws, based on the OECD’s transfer pricing guidelines or the UN’s Transfer Pricing Manual, to stop revenue lost through foreign companies shifting costs between affiliates to avoid paying tax.
In 2008, the UN Committee of Experts on International Co-operation on Tax Matters said developing and African countries faced “tension” between “enforcing their legitimate taxing rights while ensuring open, transparent, investment-friendly and fair environment for investors. The skills and informational gaps in many developing countries exacerbate these difficulties.”
In practice, the “arm’s-length principle” is not easy to implement. A report by researchers from Christian Aid pointed out that companies can organise their business in such a way that “allocates risk and value to minimise tax liabilities”.
Multinationals have vast resources compared to African and developing countries to make seemingly valid arguments for their pricing structures or obscuring them. For another, it is also very difficult to allocate the price of intangibles such as how brand value should be appraised.
The UN Committee of Experts on International Co-operation in Tax Matters has pointed out that many developing countries lack “comparable data for calculating costs or resale prices of goods and services”.
South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said African countries needed to focus on increasing the capacity and integrity of tax and customs agencies, as well as on strengthening tax legislation to better deal with the abuse of tax.
Many African countries lack appropriate transfer pricing laws, and if they do have, they may not have the resources to implement them. African countries will need to co-operate by collectively insisting that multinationals do country-by-country reporting of activities, and exchanging tax information and sharing capacity.
*This article was published on Democracy Works. To view the article on their website click here.
- Twitter: @william_gumede
Inspired by the U.S., West Africans Wield Smartphones to Fight Police Abuse
By DIONNE SEARCEY and JAIME YAYA BARRYSEPT. 16, 2016
Continue reading the main storyShare This Page
By DIONNE SEARCEY and JAIME YAYA BARRYSEPT. 16, 2016
Continue reading the main storyShare This Page
- Ivory Coast: An unarmed man lies on a street with his arms up. A police officer fires a shot that appears to strike him.
The man, a theft suspect, squirms on the road as the officer kicks and hovers over him, firing his weapon several times near his head, bullets hitting the ground just inches away. The officer then aims directly at the man’s forehead and pulls the trigger, killing him.
The video, recorded by an onlooker using a cellphone camera, spread widely across social media this summer, attracting comments like “What is this horror.”
“Isn’t this what’s happening in the USA right now?” writes one viewer. “We’re killing innocent people.”
Inspired by the videos that have captured police killings and defined the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, West Africans are increasingly deploying social media in nations where corruption and abuse by security forces sometimes occur with few repercussions.
In America, videos of white police officers shooting unarmed black men have caused a social uprising, exposing what many people see as a deadly national bias in law enforcement.
Here in West Africa, where cellphone and internet use has exploded in recent years and social media websites are hugely popular, race is rarely a factor in the videos being shared online. But wealth and power are.
Continue reading the main story
So, just as in the United States and other places where social media has enabled protest, citizens who feel marginalized are using the videos to seek justice when law enforcement officers abuse their authority.
“There is a general sense that law officials can do pretty much whatever they want,” said Vincent Foucher, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, who has worked extensively in West Africa. “Images are a very powerful way to bring up these issues.”
In Nigeria, capturing law enforcement abuse is so popular that people send in videos and photos taken from scenes of military brutality, bribery by public officials and other misconduct to one of the nation’s biggest television stations, which shows them in a segment called “Eye Reports” during its main news program.
“They are now part of the reporting of the good, the bad and the ugly of the country’s social life,” says Lanre Arogundade, the coordinator of the International Press Center in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.
Human rights workers say that the practice of sharing videos in West Africa is a natural extension of longstanding frustrations with abuse of power in the region. But even with today’s ability to capture and broadcast evidence immediately, the videos have not always produced tangible results. Often the clips are hard to verify, and few prosecutions have followed, experts say. Scenes of police officers seeking checkpoint bribes or beating civilians sometimes amount to no more than a handful of Facebook comments expressing indignation.
But little by little, many of the videos shared on social media are chipping away at impunity and in some cases drawing widespread attention to problems that the authorities are finding hard to ignore.
“These have led to, if not prosecutions, at least more awareness and discussion of violations, and that is really important,” said Sabrina Mahtani, West Africa researcher for Amnesty International.
In areas where law and order is scant, videos are sometimes shared online by supporters of the police — as a cautionary tale of what happens to wrongdoers who are rightly, if violently, punished for doing bad things. But once they make their way across social media, they are sometimes cited as evidence of abuse by security forces, evoking outrage and injustice.
In the video of the officer shooting the man in Ivory Coast, for instance, one onlooker can be heard saying, “Again, do it again!” after the officer shoots the man the first time. Others in the crowd appear to egg on the officer, and at the end of the clip, another person off camera can be heard saying, “Don’t film him, don’t film him,” adding, “You are going to get that police officer in trouble.”
But as the video made its way across the internet, it prompted an uproar in Abidjan, the nation’s economic capital, where the officer was arrested and an official investigation was opened. In a statement widely reported by the local news media, the chief of the Ivorian national police force said it “will not tolerate behavior from its officers that is contrary to the ethics of human rights.”
PhotoIn a scene caught on cellphone video, a police officer in Ivory Coast killed an unarmed theft suspect.
In July, Sheriff shyttu, who is not a law enforcement officer, was stuck on a highway in Lagos watching a scene he felt deserved the collective outrage of the internet.
A soldier was beating a bus conductor, waving a gun and threatening to shoot the man. Other soldiers joined in, shouting, “We’re going to kill him.”
“That was when I took out my phone and started recording,” said Mr. shyttu, who posted the video on YouTube. “It’s a deterrent to abuse and power. This guy didn’t do anything wrong.”
Mr. shyttu said he was inspired by the success of American videos in drawing attention to violence by law enforcement officers and had seen videos of similar episodes shared online that resulted in soldiers being disciplined in Nigeria.
“In the past nothing would happen,” he said. “That’s changing now.”
In Conakry, Guinea, a video that was circulated on the internet several months ago showed an armed robbery suspect with his hands and feet tied to an iron bar. Uniformed national police officers paraded him around, suspending him from the bar like an animal carcass, in an attempt to get a confession. “You’re breaking my hands!” the suspect shouts.
One of the officers at the scene that day posted the video on his Facebook page, apparently for bragging rights. But it was shared across social media, prompting denunciations from Guinean human rights organizations.
The Guinean government, which passed measures in 2011 aimed at cracking down on forced confessions, suspended 13 officers over the episode and opened an investigation into using torture to extract confessions.
Cellphone-armed citizens certainly have not put a halt to abuses of authority. In Nigeria, the military has been accused of killing countless civilians in recent years. And in some nations, government opposition forces and protesters have been threatened, beaten, jailed or sometimes killed without consequence, even when the abuse was captured on video.
But police abuse is not the only issue the videos help address. This spring in Cameroon, onlookers captured a horrific scene outside a hospital, leading to a national outcry about the state of the health care system.
Monique Koumate, who was pregnant with twins, arrived at a hospital in distress and died before she entered. En route to the morgue, her relatives noticed that the fetuses, apparently still alive, were moving inside Ms. Koumate’s body. They rushed back to the hospital but were unable to summon help. Desperate to save the babies, one relative placed Ms. Koumate’s corpse on the sidewalk and sliced open her stomach, pulling out the babies and resting them on her stomach.
It was too late. They were dead.
The gruesome scene went viral online. A Twitter hashtag #MoniqueKoumate was created, and accusations were aired that the hospital had turned away Ms. Koumate because she could not pay for care.
The public outrage prompted the hospital to investigate and led to a report by the National Order of Doctors of Cameroon citing deficiencies and calling for better maternal health care.
But police abuse is still the focus of many people, with numerous Facebook and WhatsApp groups in the region dedicated to sharing videos on the topic.
In Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, passers-by were already recording when Yasmine Bilkis Ibrahim pulled out her phone to film an officer screaming and waving his gun at a terrified unarmed man after an apparent traffic altercation.
“I will kill you,” the officer yelled at the man. “And nothing will come of it.”
Ms. Ibrahim, 24, made an immediate link to what is happening in the United States. “If people can use such videos in America to demand justice, I believe we can also demand justice using the same method,” she said.
Brima Kamara, a spokesman for the Sierra Leone police, said he belongs to a WhatsApp group, called “Talk With the Police,” made up of police officers, politicians and regular citizens.
People often submit video clips to the group, alleging police misbehavior. One recent submission showed two officers fighting. The men were suspended and sent back to the police academy for more training, Mr. Kamara said.
He said the videos help improve the police force in a nation still recovering from a brutal civil war that ended 14 years ago.
“We often advise officers to be careful of their actions in public because at this age they can’t get away with crimes or actions,” Mr. Kamara said. “Now with the involvement of social media and the smartphones, everything goes public in just a minute.”
Sean Lyngaas contributed reporting from Abidjan, Ivory Coast; and Tony Iyare from Lagos, Nigeria.
A version of this article appears in print on September 17, 2016, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Africans Turn a Video Lens on the Police. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Cameroon: WFP adopts mobile money as means to improve food ration in a refugee camp in Garoua-Boulaï
Saturday, 17 September 2016 16:20
(Business in Cameroon) - Since May 2016, the food ration invariably made of maize, beans, palm oil and cooking salt has not been distributed to the 23,000 Central African refugees living in the Gado Badzere camp, located in the Cameroonian town of Garoua-Boulaï, at the border with the Central African Republic.
Instead of specific foodstuffs, the WFP (World Food Program) now enables these refugees to sustain themselves with foods of their choice, the pro-government daily report. To achieve this, we learned, FCfa 8,500 per family member is transferred on a monthly basis to each family, via their mobile phones.
The families can therefore make their purchases, only by using their electronic money, from shops established in the camp. The shop owners, who have themselves received from the WFP seed money worth FCfa 1.5 million each, via mobile money, can thus get supplies from wholesalers approved by the WFP, still using digital money.
To date, we learned, the Gado Badzere camp has 30 electronic money transaction points. Among these locations, there are 21 shops held by refugees themselves, and which led to the creation of 33 direct jobs through the recruitment of shop attendants.
BRM
Cameroon: WFP adopts mobile money as means to improve food ration in a refugee camp in Garoua-Boulaï
Saturday, 17 September 2016 16:20
(Business in Cameroon) - Since May 2016, the food ration invariably made of maize, beans, palm oil and cooking salt has not been distributed to the 23,000 Central African refugees living in the Gado Badzere camp, located in the Cameroonian town of Garoua-Boulaï, at the border with the Central African Republic.
Instead of specific foodstuffs, the WFP (World Food Program) now enables these refugees to sustain themselves with foods of their choice, the pro-government daily report. To achieve this, we learned, FCfa 8,500 per family member is transferred on a monthly basis to each family, via their mobile phones.
The families can therefore make their purchases, only by using their electronic money, from shops established in the camp. The shop owners, who have themselves received from the WFP seed money worth FCfa 1.5 million each, via mobile money, can thus get supplies from wholesalers approved by the WFP, still using digital money.
To date, we learned, the Gado Badzere camp has 30 electronic money transaction points. Among these locations, there are 21 shops held by refugees themselves, and which led to the creation of 33 direct jobs through the recruitment of shop attendants.
BRM
Cameroon: WFP adopts mobile money as means to improve food ration in a refugee camp in Garoua-Boulaï
I think krioulu and Haitian Creole are the two biggest creole languages in the worldA Cape Verdean-English dictionary
Dorchester man captures evolving language
Yawu Miller | 8/24/2016, 10:26 a.m.
Manuel Da Luz Gonçalves has compiled the first-ever Cape Verdean Creole to English dictionary, with 40,000 words. BANNER PHOTO
Like many children who grew up in Cape Verde pre-independence, Manuel Da Luz Gonçalves was forbidden from speaking his native Creole language during school.
“Creole was not recognized as a language,” he says. “For us, to study Portuguese was mandatory. If you were caught speaking Creole on school grounds, you would be punished.”
After the island threw off the shackles of Portuguese colonialism in 1975, Gonçalves worked with other Cape Verdeans in Boston to write the curriculum for the Boston Public Schools’ first Creole-English bilingual program. In the 1990s, he worked with other linguists on efforts to standardize spelling in Cape Verdean Creole — efforts that led to ALUPEC, the phonetic alphabet now recognized by the Cape Verdean government.
Now, after ten years of researching word usage on the archipelago’s ten islands, Gonçalves, who lives in Dorchester, has completed the first-ever Creole-to-English dictionary. After wading through 220 books written in Creole and listening to innumerable recordings of Cape Verdean music, Gonçalves gathered more than 40,000 words for the dictionary, which was published in February.
Earlier efforts have yielded Creole-Portuguese and Creole- French dictionaries, Gonçalves’ dictionary is the first to open up the language to English-speakers.
“This is absolutely wonderful,” says state Sen. Vinny deMacedo, a Plymouth Republican who grew up speaking Creole at home, but never learned to read in the language. “I’m incredibly grateful for his persistence. I know I’m not the only one who will benefit from this.”
Slave history
The Cape Verde islands were uninhabited when they were settled by the Portuguese in the 15th century. The Portuguese used the islands as a transfer station in the trans-Atlantic slave trade until its decline in the 19th century. Many West Africans remained on the islands. Those Africans, many of whom mixed with the Portuguese, created the Cape Verdean Creole that is spoken today.
The language has a primarily Portuguese lexicon, with many African and some English words. While Creole is the universally-spoken language in the ten-island archipelago, most schools there still give instruction in Portuguese.
Because the language was effectively banned by the Portuguese, there is little that has been written in Creole before independence. Gonçalves says he leaned heavily on Cape Verdean folklore and music to glean words and shades of meaning. In those stories, many of which Gonçalves heard growing up, he gained not only a deeper understanding of his native tongue, but also a greater appreciation for Cape Verdean culture.
“You always listened to these stories in the evenings,” he said. “They were never written down. Hearing them was like traveling back into time.”
While there are 525,000 people living in Cape Verde, there are an estimated 265,000 people of Cape Verdean descent living in the United States, primarily in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Gonçalves says his dictionary will be useful to people taking Cape Verdean Creole classes at Bridgewater State College and University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, as well as U.S. citizens serving in the Peace Corps in Cape Verde.
He has gotten orders for his book from many local Cape Verdeans, as well as from people as far away as Norway, Finland, Austria and South Africa.
“I think there’s interest from a lot of people who work in linguistics and cultural anthropology,” he said.
Prior to the dictionary, Gonçalves published a Cape Verdean Creole grammar book called “Pa Nu Papia Kriolu” (“for us to speak Creole”). He moved to Boston in 1974, after he was conscripted into the Portuguese military. Gonçalves received a master’s degree in guidance and counseling and taught in Madison Park High School’s bilingual program.
Copies of Gonçalves’ dictionary can be purchased on his website: http://mili-mila.com. On Thursday, Sept. 1, the Consul General of Cape Verde will host a reception for Gonçalves at their local consulate at 300 Congress Street in Quincy at 6 p.m.
A Cape Verdean-English dictionary
did my googles u right
Haitian, Patois, and Afrikaans are the biggest
Namibia: N$80 Million Power Plant for Erongo
20 SEPTEMBER 2016
By Eveline De Klerk
Walvis Bay — The construction of an N$80 million solar photovoltaic power plant will commence in November at the mining town of Arandis.
The power purchase agreement (PPA) between Erongo Red and OLC Arandis Solar Energy signed at Walvis Bay on Monday will culminate in the new 3.4 megawatt (MW) solar-powered plant.
This comes after Arandis Solar Energy, an independent power producer, successfully tendered in 2015 for the construction of the new power plant.
The plant will be constructed on a piece of land, measuring 12.5 hectares, that will be leased from Arandis Town Council.
About 50 jobs are expected to be created during the construction phase, as well as an unspecified number of permanent jobs when the project becomes operational.
According to Erongo Red CEO Robert Kahimise the power plant is expected to save the regional electricity distributor close to N$5.8 million a year and an estimated N$127 million over a 25-year period.
He added that the signing of the PPA marks yet another important milestone for Erongo Red, which he says is continuously seeking ways to make power supply more affordable.
According to Kahimise, the Electricity Control Board will provide regulatory oversight and OLC Arandis Solar Energy will be the operator of the plant and the seller of generated power.
"The Arandis Solar project will not only ease Erongo Red's electricity bill from Nampower, but will also allow electricity consumers to have access to clean energy at a reasonable price.
"Personally, I feel the signing of this agreement is a step in the right direction and it came at the right time, as we are shifting our focus to renewable energy as we diversify our energy mix, such as wind, solar and biomass," he said.
Once completed, over 10 000 poly-crystalline photovoltaic (PV) panels will be mounted on a horizontal single-axis tracking system to produce a total installed capacity of 3.4 MW.
The PV plant will generate over 8.3 million KW hours of emission-free electricity per year.
It will be connected to and synchronised with Erongo Red's transmission station and will likely supply electricity generated from the sun to the coast for the next 25 years.
Also speaking at the signing ceremony, O&L Energy's CEO, Bernd Walbaum, said the project reflects ways in which the public and the private sector can come together to create a win-win situation for Namibia in terms of the provision of power.
He said the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the new solar plant would take place in November.
New Era Newspaper Namibia
20 SEPTEMBER 2016
By Eveline De Klerk
Walvis Bay — The construction of an N$80 million solar photovoltaic power plant will commence in November at the mining town of Arandis.
The power purchase agreement (PPA) between Erongo Red and OLC Arandis Solar Energy signed at Walvis Bay on Monday will culminate in the new 3.4 megawatt (MW) solar-powered plant.
This comes after Arandis Solar Energy, an independent power producer, successfully tendered in 2015 for the construction of the new power plant.
The plant will be constructed on a piece of land, measuring 12.5 hectares, that will be leased from Arandis Town Council.
About 50 jobs are expected to be created during the construction phase, as well as an unspecified number of permanent jobs when the project becomes operational.
According to Erongo Red CEO Robert Kahimise the power plant is expected to save the regional electricity distributor close to N$5.8 million a year and an estimated N$127 million over a 25-year period.
He added that the signing of the PPA marks yet another important milestone for Erongo Red, which he says is continuously seeking ways to make power supply more affordable.
According to Kahimise, the Electricity Control Board will provide regulatory oversight and OLC Arandis Solar Energy will be the operator of the plant and the seller of generated power.
"The Arandis Solar project will not only ease Erongo Red's electricity bill from Nampower, but will also allow electricity consumers to have access to clean energy at a reasonable price.
"Personally, I feel the signing of this agreement is a step in the right direction and it came at the right time, as we are shifting our focus to renewable energy as we diversify our energy mix, such as wind, solar and biomass," he said.
Once completed, over 10 000 poly-crystalline photovoltaic (PV) panels will be mounted on a horizontal single-axis tracking system to produce a total installed capacity of 3.4 MW.
The PV plant will generate over 8.3 million KW hours of emission-free electricity per year.
It will be connected to and synchronised with Erongo Red's transmission station and will likely supply electricity generated from the sun to the coast for the next 25 years.
Also speaking at the signing ceremony, O&L Energy's CEO, Bernd Walbaum, said the project reflects ways in which the public and the private sector can come together to create a win-win situation for Namibia in terms of the provision of power.
He said the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the new solar plant would take place in November.
New Era Newspaper Namibia