Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

{A Nigerian software engineer claims he was handed a written test by a US border officer at New York’s JFK airport to prove his tech credentials, and Filipinos on social media criticise a proposed death penalty bill.}

{{Tech test for Nigerian software engineer}}

A software engineer from Lagos, Nigeria, is claiming that he was made to sit a written test by US airport immigration officers because they weren’t convinced he was telling the truth about his skills.

According to social networking site LinkedIn, Celestine Omin, 28, landed in New York’s JFK airport last Sunday after a 24-hour flight from Nigeria.

Mr Omin is employed by Andela, a tech start-up with offices in New York, Lagos, Nairobi and San Francisco.

The firm says it recruits “the most talented developers on the African continent” and connects them with tech employers in the US for potential job vacancies. Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg visited Andela’s office in Lagos last year.

Mr Omin had reportedly been granted a short-term visa to work with First Access, a financial technology company in New York’s Manhattan district.

After being asked a series of questions by a US Customs and Border Protection officer, he was taken into a room for further checks.

“Your visa says you are a software engineer. Is that correct?” an officer is reported to have asked Mr Omin.

He says he was then given a piece of paper and a pen and told to answer these two questions to prove he is actually a software engineer:

“Write a function to check if a Binary Search Tree is balanced.”

“What is an abstract class, and why do you need it?”

Mr Omin told LinkedIn it seemed to him the questions had been “Googled” by “someone with no technical background”.

He said later on Twitter that he was “too tired to even think”, and told the officer they could “talk about other computer science concepts”.

After he handed back his answers, he was told by the officer that they were wrong. He said he presumed he was required to provide “the Wikipedia definition” for the questions.

However, he was even more surprised a little later when the officer told him he was “free to go”.

“Look, I am going to let you go, but you don’t look convincing to me,” said the officer, according to Mr Omin.

“I didn’t say anything back. I just walked out.”

He later found out that border protection officers had phoned Andela to verify his story.

A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told the BBC: “US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers strive to treat all people arriving in the country with dignity and respect.

“While we are not at liberty to discuss individual cases due to the Privacy Act, our CBP officers enforce not only immigration and customs laws, but also more than 400 laws for 40 other agencies and have stopped thousands of violators of US law.”

Nigeria is not one of the seven countries included in US President Donald Trump’s temporary immigration pause. However, the African country has been struggling with the threat of terrorism in recent times, in particular from the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

{{Filipinos oppose proposed death penalty}}

Filipinos are voicing opposition to the proposed reintroduction of the death penalty by using the hashtag #NoToDeathPenalty.

Today, lawmakers passed a second reading for bill, though it will still need to go through further stages before becoming law.

But social media users are critical of the reintroduction of the penalty even though this time round it would only be applied to drug-related offences.

The largely devout Catholic country last abolished capital punishment in 2006. It was the first Asian country to do so in 1987, though the law was later reinstated in 1993.
Students were among those who expressed their reservations to the move on Twitter and Facebook. One said: “I am RJ Naguit from University of Santo Tomas and I am against any measure that desecrates the value of human life.”

“I am Jesica Canete, 23-years-old from Looc, Lapu-Lapu City. I believe that all lives matter. I am against the death penalty,” another added.

A Filipino philosophy student pointed out what he said was the “irony” of the House of Representatives possibly reviving the death penalty on “a day of mercy and compassion”, Ash Wednesday.

“I’m a registered voter and I don’t recognise the power of the state over the life or death of any individual,” another user said.

Raymond Badri, who works for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said the death penalty was simply the “legal name for murder”.

“I am against the reimposition of the death penalty. This is not the way to go,” Jesuit priest and President of Ateneo de Davao University Joel Tabora added.

Last weekend, more than 1,000 people protested in the Philippine capital Manila against President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal anti-drugs crackdown which was launched in July and in which more than 7,000 people are said to have been killed.

A day before the anti-Duterte protest, Senator Leila de Lima one of the most vocal critics of the president’s anti-drugs crackdown – was arrested on drug charges that she denies.

The president has said in the past that he would be “happy to slaughter” the country’s drug addicts.

In December 2016, he told the BBC that he killed three men when he was Mayor of Davao.

The latest move to reintroduce the penalty has been criticised by human rights groups and diplomats who say it would breach the country’s legal international obligations. Thousands were also said to have marched against the proposal in the capital earlier this month.

But the president still enjoys a high level of approval in the country. Last Saturday, his backers also rallied in Manila to support his anti-drugs campaign.

Source:BBC

{A kitchen porter has been made a co-owner of the four-time winner of the world’s best restaurant.}

Ali Sonko, 62, is now a partner at Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant where he has been working since it opened.

Mr Sonko, from the Gambia, was unveiled as one of three new partners, alongside two of its managers.

The two-Michelin starred restaurant closed its doors after 14 years at the current location, and will reopen in December as an “urban farm”.

“Ali is the heart and soul of Noma,” chef Rene Redzepi explained to friends gathered to celebrate the restaurant at the weekend, according to Danish newspaper Berlingske.

“I don’t think people appreciate what it means to have a person like Ali in the house. He is all smiles, no matter how his 12 children fare.

“And, by the way, my own father was also named Ali, and he too worked as a dishwasher when he came to Denmark.”

Posting a picture of Mr Sonko and fellow new co-owners restaurant managers Lau Richter and James Spreadbury to Instagram, Mr Redzepi added: “This is only the beginning, as we plan to surprise several more of our staff with a piece of the walls that they have chosen to work so hard within.”

Mr Sonko, who has lived in Denmark for 34 years, first rose to prominence in 2010, when he was unable, due to visa issues, to go to London with the team to pick up their first Best Restaurant in the World award.

But the team did not forget him: instead, they all wore T-shirts with the dishwasher’s face on it and two years later – the visa issues sorted out – Mr Sonko gave the acceptance speech as Noma was once again named the World’s Best Restaurant.

At the time, Mr Sonko, a farmer in the Gambia before his arrival in Copenhagen, described it as the “best job” he had ever had to Danish website BT.

“I cannot describe how happy I am to work here,” he said. “These are the best people to work with, and I’m good friends with everyone. They exhibit enormous respect for me, and no matter what I say or ask about, they are there for me. And that’s enough for me to say that it’s the best job I’ve ever had.”

Noma, which made its name with its locally sourced, Nordic food, has been named Best Restaurant in the World in the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best a further three times.

Source:BBC

{Emergency services in Zimbabwe’s public hospitals are grinding to a halt after nurses joined doctors on strike.}

Many nurses have reportedly stayed away from the main hospitals in Harare and nearby Chitungwiza in an indefinite protest over pay and conditions.

Last week, army doctors were brought in to help cope with the doctors’ strike.

The BBC’s Shingai Nyoka in Harare says Zimbabwe’s medical professionals are some of the worst paid in the region and their salaries are often paid late.

Hospitals have been turning away the sick and patients have been discharged early following a doctors strike over allowances and job security.

There is a concern that army personnel brought in as a stop-gap will not be able to cope without nurses.

The nurses’ main demand is that the government honours its commitment to pay out 2016 bonuses.

Source:BBC

{The government is exploring strategies to maximally exploit tourist potentials of the tallest tree in Africa, found in Kilimanjaro Region. According to Mount Kilimanjaro National Park (KINAPA) Chief Park Warden Bertita Loibooki, the unique tree has the potentials of attracting more tourists to Africa’s tallest mountain and elsewhere.}

Ms Loibooki said here that having around the tree that measures 81.5 metres is a tourism millage, noting that KINAPA will conserve it by any means possible to enable people from different corners of the world to see it.

“It’s a big boast to have this tree in our park and we are going to use it as one of our tools to promote Mount Kilimanjaro, get more tourists and revenues,” she said during the regional leaders’ tour of the tree at Mrusunga, Kidia area.

The giant indigenous tree – Entandrophragma excelsum – belongs to the mahogany family and replaces the previous reigning height champion on the continent, an 81.5-metre tall Sydney blue gum (Eucalyptus saligna) from Limpopo, South Africa that died in 2006. The tree is also ancient, its age estimated at between 500 and 600 years.

It was discovered last year by Dr Andreas Hemp and Dr Claudia Hemp from the University of Bayreuth in Germany. Ms Loibooki said KINAPA was initiating a research to find out the best means to improve the infrastructure at the area. She argued that improved infrastructure will shorten the tourists’ safari to the area, because as of now the environment is not friendly to reach the place.

It takes about 2:30 hour walk from Tema village to Mrusunga area. Kilimanjaro Regional Commissioner (RC), Said Meck Sadiki, Moshi District Commissioner (DC), Kippi Warioba and other officials had to use both feet and hands to make it to the area due to the steep hills, valleys and rivers they had to cross.

Mr Sadiki who hoisted the national flag upon arrival at the tree, urged KINAPA to protect the tree and ensure nobody tampers with it, warning citizens against any attempt to harm it, saying some people could start going for the tree’s barks due to their religious beliefs. He issued a stern warning against environmental degradation, especially the wanton felling of trees.

He said the tree is likely to increase local and international tourists, enhancing the state coffers. The researchers, under Kili Project, first spotted the bunches of the tall Entandrophragma excelsum trees while exploring Mount Kilimanjaro’s vegetation 20 years ago.

But, it was only recently that the tools were availed to measure its accurate height. Following the discovery, the tree has become a new heritage of natural wonders in Africa. Dr Andreas revealed that the tree is the sixth longest in the world and that it keeps growing amid prospects of remaining alive for the next 200 years.

In 2013, Mount Kilimanjaro was declared one of the seven wonders of Africa, with its Kibo Peak at 5,895 metres from sea level, being the big attraction to visitors from foreign countries.

The tallest tree in the world measures 115.7 metres and is found in California, in the United States of America (USA), with the second measuring 99.8 metres found in Tasmania, Australia.

Source:Daily News