IGIHE

Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

  • More than recess: How playing on the swings helps kids learn to cooperate

    {A favorite childhood pastime — swinging on the playground swing set — also may be teaching kids how to get along.}

    The measured, synchronous movement of children on the swings can encourage preschoolers to cooperate on subsequent activities, University of Washington researchers have found.

    A study by the UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) shows the potential of synchronized movement in helping young children develop collaborative skills. The study is published online in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

    “Synchrony enhances cooperation, because your attention is directed at engaging with another person, at the same time,” explained Tal-Chen Rabinowitch, a postdoctoral researcher at I-LABS. “We think that being ‘in time’ together enhances social interaction in positive ways.”

    Previous studies, including others by Rabinowitch, have linked music and being in sync with other pro-social behaviors, such as helping, sharing and empathizing, among young children: Marching together to a song, for example, might prompt one child to share with another.

    In this study, Rabinowitch, along with I-LABS co-director and psychology professor Andrew Meltzoff, sought to focus on movement alone, without music, and examined how children cooperated with one another afterward. Cooperation — adapting to a situation, compromising with someone else, working toward a common goal — is considered a life skill, one that parents and teachers try to develop in a child’s early years.

    For the I-LABS study, researchers built a swing set that enabled two children to swing in unison, in controlled cycles of time. Pairs of 4-year-olds — who were unfamiliar to one another — were randomly assigned to groups that either swung together in precise time, swung out of sync with each other, or didn’t swing at all. The pairs in all three groups then participated in a series of tasks designed to evaluate their cooperation. In one activity, the children played a computer game that required them to push buttons at the same time in order to see a cartoon figure appear. Another, called the “give and take” activity, involved passing objects back and forth through a puzzle-like device.

    Researchers found that the children who swung in unison completed the tasks faster, indicating better cooperation than those who swung out of sync, or not at all. On the button-push task, for instance, the pairs who had been swinging together showed a greater tendency to strategically raise their hands before they pushed the button so as to signal their intent to the other child, which proved to be a successful tactic for the task.

    For 4-year-olds, moving in sync can create a feeling of “being like” another child that, consequently, may encourage them to communicate more and try to work together, Rabinowitch said.

    “Cooperation has both a social and cognitive side, because people can solve problems they couldn’t solve alone,” Meltzoff said. “We didn’t know before we started the study that cooperation between 4-year-olds could be enhanced through the simple experience of moving together. It’s provocative that kids’ cooperation can be profoundly changed by their experiences.”

    Rabinowitch believes the results of this study can have implications outside the lab. Teachers and parents can provide “in sync” opportunities for groups of children, whether through music, dance or play.

    Source:Science Daily

  • 7 ways to block negativity in your life

    {Negativity is the opposite of anything positive; negativity will block peace, happiness, success and any beautiful thing that you should have in life.}

    If you give negativity the chance, it’ll ruin your life. These tips will help you block negativity from ruining your life.

    {{1. Choose to spend your time productively}}

    If you’d notice, negativity is mostly borne out of idleness. It’s in your idle moments your mind tricks you into thinking negatively. If you can be more productive with your time, you wouldn’t have the time to let negativity settle.

    {{2. Guard your thoughts }}

    You have the power to control what you think about, and it’s important to guard your thoughts because it eventually becomes your actions. Channel your mind to more positive thoughts and negativity will be far from you.

    {{3. Spend time with positive people }}

    The people you also spend time with will have a lot of impact on your thoughts and actions. Spend time with positive people and you’d find yourself being more positive, no matter what.

    {{4. Cut negative relationships }}

    Just as you must spend time with more positive people, you ought to cut off every form of negative relationship. Relationships that are bringing you down, making you think low and channeling your positive energy in the wrong direction aren’t good for you – steer clear from such relationships.

    {{5. Create time for happiness }}

    Create time to be happy and spend time with people who make you happy. Spending time with family, friends and loved ones will boost your happiness, and happiness is a good source of positivity.

    {{6. Choose your attitude }}

    You could be confronted with situations that will make you unhappy, angry, sad, bitter and draw out other forms of negative attitude from you, but if you search deep within, you have the power to control your attitude and never let anything bring out the beast or ugly part of you.

    {{7. Think of solutions and not problems }}

    We’ll be faced with challenges and difficult situations – that is life for you; it wasn’t meant to be a bed of roses, and it’s in overcoming those difficulties that you become a better and stronger man/woman.

    When faced with problems and challenges, think of solutions because that’s what will bail you out. Thinking of the problem will only ruin your positivity and it wouldn’t add any tangible thing to your life.

    Have you been battling negativity in your life? You actually have the power to win that battle and let positivity guide you.

    Source:Elcrema

  • Rusizi man stabs DASSO staff, shot dead escaping

    {A man identified as Mahoro Jean Bosco has been shot dead as he tried to escape from detention. }

    Mahoro was arrested yesterday at Kamembe police station in Kamembe sector of Rusizi district after stabbing a staff of District Administration Security Support Organ (DASSO) in the head with machete as the official on duty accompanied law enforcers to raze down his house constructed without following standards.

    The police spokesperson in Western Province, CIP Theobald Kanamugire has confirmed the information saying Mahoro’s escape may have been triggered by fear of gravity of the crime he committed.

    “He may have feared the gravity of committed crime which prompted his escape. The policeman shot him dead as he tried to scape. The incident happened around 5:00 hours,” he said.

    The mortuary where the body has been taken.

  • New divisions threaten stability in the DRC

    {Two political accords and three prime ministers later, and four months after Congolese President Joseph Kabila was due to leave office at the end of his second mandate, credible elections and political stability in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) appear more elusive than ever.}

    The 31 December political accord, brokered in good faith by the Catholic Conférence Episcopale Nationale du Congo (CENCO), remains the only viable blueprint for political stability in the DRC. It calls for elections by the end of 2017, no third mandate for Kabila and the formation of a new government, led by a prime minister issued from the ranks of the Rassemblement de l’opposition (Rassop), the country’s largest political opposition alliance – led until his death on 1 February by Etienne Tshisekedi.

    The 31 December political accords were based on the principles of consensus, inclusivity and transparency; the government that would emerge would draw its legitimacy from these principles, and the credibility of the elections it would organise would be based upon them.

    But getting the disparate parties to implement the 31 December accord, in letter and in spirit, was always going to be difficult, mainly because it involved concrete concessions from the ruling presidential alliance, the Majorité Présidentielle (MP), which has been the architect of the glissage – or delaying strategy that has allowed Kabila to remain in office past December 2016.

    Credible elections and political stability in the DRC appear more elusive than ever
    On the other side of the political divide, Tshisekedi’s credibility and popularity kept the Rassop’s many components united and on board with the 31 December agreement. The political opposition also knew it had common cause with the international community, which wants elections to take place as soon as possible.

    Most importantly though, sustained political pressure from the population, which has repeatedly manifested its desire to see Kabila go, has been a significant factor driving both the opposition and the international community to maintain pressure on Kabila and his elite.

    However, Tshisekedi’s death – and the subsequent leadership squabbles this has provoked in both his party, the Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social (UDPS), and the Rassop alliance – have given rise to political opportunism. UDPS veterans unhappy with the anointment of Tshisekedi’s son Felix have balked at his nomination to head the alliance and the party. Several have jumped ship or been excluded and have formed ‘new’ parties – not because they think these parties are viable political entities that can win elections, but to position themselves as the preferred opposition partner for a ruling elite looking for viable puppets.

    Kabila’s ruling alliance has in some instances actively encouraged splits in the opposition.

    CENCO attempted for some weeks to lock down the details of the accord, but it threw in the towel on 21 March on the grounds that it could not get the parties to agree. It rebuked the Congolese political class, whom it accused of lacking goodwill and of pursuing its own selfish interests at the expense of the interests of the country and the Congolese population.

    The MP has lapped this up – and in some instances, actively encouraged these splits. Picking up where CENCO left off, Kabila held talks with numerous political players in early April, including dissident members of the UDPS and the Rassop.

    And as expected, on 7 April, Kabila nominated one such dissident to the post of prime minister. As a founding member of the UDPS and former close associate of Tshisekedi’s, the new prime minister doesn’t lack opposition credentials. Even so, in designating Bruno Tshibala, Kabila chose someone he can argue is not from his political camp and whose nomination follows the letter of the 31 December accord, all the while knowing that he has full control over the new government chief.

    Tshibala’s nomination has done nothing to soothe tension in the country. Mass protests called by the Rassop in the days after the nomination were scuppered when authorities’ refused to grant permission for the marches, but morphed into a widely followed one-day stay-away.

    Several key countries have also expressed concern about Tshibala’s nomination and have emphasised that the 31 December accord remains the only blueprint for the period leading up to elections. The European Union was sharply criticised by the foreign minister for this stance, and the international community was warned not to interfere in domestic matters.

    Into this political morass wades MONUSCO, the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC. MONUSCO has long had a difficult relationship with Kabila, who has openly criticised the mission for staying beyond its initial mandate to establish peace and oversee the country’s post-conflict elections in 2006. The recently adopted UN Security Council resolution 2348 focuses MONUSCO’s mandate specifically on implementing the 31 December accord, and Maman Sidikou, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in the DRC, has started meeting with the various parties.

    To avoid diluting its standing on peace and security, new AU leaders must tackle the DRC crisis

    The African Union (AU), which brokered the October 2016 political accord that was rejected by the political opposition, has taken a backseat, although in late March the Peace and Security Council did express concern about delays in implementing the 31 December accord. Given AU member states’ history of solidarity with the incumbent, it may be a long shot to expect tough measures from the continental body. Still, the AU is under new leadership, and if it fails to tackle the growing crisis in the DRC, its standing as a significant actor on continental peace and security issues will be further diluted.

    Kabila acquiesced to a new round of talks last year, following pressure from Angola. Whether Angola will weigh in again is unclear.

    Kabila and his elite have over the past six months been able to cobble together a semblance of cooperation and compliance, and have avoided looking like the only spoiler in the room. From their perspective, there is no good reason to submit to another round of talks which could involve additional painful concessions.

    Despite this, pressure from the international community, the AU and regional bodies like the Southern Africa Development Community and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region to abide by the 31 December accord must be maintained if the DRC is not to slide into full-scale political chaos.

    Source:Issafrica

  • Two killed in bomb blast in Thailand’s restive south

    {Thailand’s southernmost provinces have seen a long-running separatist insurgency in the Muslim-dominated region.}

    Two insurgents were killed in Thailand’s violence-plagued south after a bomb they were transporting prematurely exploded, the military said on Thursday.

    Their deaths came during a night of violence across 11 districts in three of Thailand’s southernmost provinces near the border with Malaysia. More than a dozen grenade and bomb attacks also wounded eight civilians and officials.

    No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, which targeted police stations and checkpoints.

    “This is the work of people who want to cause chaos. It looks like their intention wasn’t to kill but rather to cause disorder,” Colonel Yutthanam Petchmuang told Reuters news agency.

    Military spokesman Pramote Prom-in identified the dead as “insurgent operation leaders”.

    Thailand is mostly Buddhist but parts of the south are majority Muslim. The region has been plagued by a long-running separatist insurgency as ethnic Malay rebels battle Thai troops for more autonomy from the Buddhist-majority state.

    Bombings and drive-by shootings are common in Thailand’s south, where more than 6,800 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since 2004.

    The country’s southernmost border provinces, former Muslim sultanates, were annexed by Bangkok more than a century ago.

    The military, which seized power in a 2014 coup, has held several rounds of negotiations with one group that claims to represent the insurgents, the Mara Patani.

    But the talks have failed to make headway and many doubt the rebel negotiators have clout over fighters on the ground.

    The biggest faction spearheading the insurgency, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), issued a rare statement earlier this month restating its opposition to the current Thai army-led peace talks.

    The military refuses to talk to the BRN even though most analysts say Mara Patani has little sway over those doing the actual fighting.

    BRN has said it will only come to the table if a third-party mediates the talks and international observers are allowed, demands Thailand’s military has repeatedly refused to accept.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Australia announces tougher new exams for citizenship

    {Foreigners will now have to undergo an ‘Australian values’ test and take a stricter exam for English competency.}

    The Australian government has announced plans to make it tougher for foreigners to obtain citizenship with applicants now having to undergo an “Australian values” test and take a higher level English-language exam.

    Prime Minister Malcolm Turnball made the announcement on Thursday, a week after he cancelled a work visa popular with foreigners and said he would replace it with an immigration policy that put “Australia First”.

    “Australian citizenship should be honoured, cherished,” Turnbull told reporters in the capital, Canberra.

    “I reckon if we went out today and said to Australians, ‘Do you think you could become an Australian citizen without being able to speak English?’ They’d say, ‘You’re kidding. Surely you’d have to be able to speak English.’”

    Turnbull’s center-right government has seen its approval rating take a nosedive in recent months with nationalist and anti-Islam parties seeing a surge in support.

    The right-wing One Nation party, which has pledged to ban Muslim immigration and install surveillance cameras in mosques and religious schools, has made significant gains at the expense of the coalition government.

    Turnbull said the applicants would need a minimum level 6.0 equivalent of the International English Language Testing System, and a person will only become eligible for citizenship after four years as a permanent resident, up from one year.

    The current citizenship multiple-choice questionnaire tests a person’s knowledge of Australian laws, national symbols, and colours of the Aboriginal flag. But Turnbull said it was not adequate to judge whether a person would accept “Australian values”.

    “If we believe that respect for women and children and saying no to violence … is an Australian value, and it is, then why should that not be made a key part, a fundamental part, a very prominent part, of our process to be an Australian citizen? Why should the test simply be a checklist of civic questions?”

    The new citizenship test will include questions about whether applicants have sent their kids to school, whether they go to work – if they are of working age – and whether becoming part of unruly gangs in cities reflected Australian values.

    “The announcement has alarmed many multicultural advocates and migrant and ethnic groups will feel targeted,” said Al Jazeera’s Yaara Bou Melhem, reporting from Sydney.

    “The opposition party has also spoken about the proposed changes and said that it’s designed to appease [the government’s] conservative base and perhaps nationalist groups.”

    The new citizenship requirements are expected to be passed by parliament with the backing of right-wing senators.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Pakistan court: Insufficient evidence to remove Sharif

    {Supreme Court rules there is not enough evidence to order Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s removal over alleged corruption.}

    Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ruled there was insufficient evidence to oust Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over corruption allegations, but has ordered a high-level investigation into the charges.

    The court issued its verdict on Thursday afternoon in a case based on the “Panama Papers” leaks that was moved by opposition leaders seeking his removal from office.

    “The Supreme Court has decided … the same thing that Nawaz Sharif himself had decided six months ago, when he ordered the formation of a commission to investigate [the allegations],” Khwaja Asif, a senior leader of Sharif’s ruling PML-N party, told reporters outside the courthouse following the announcement.

    Sharif will remain in office during the course of the investigation, which will also focus on his sons Hassan and Hussain, the verdict said.

    According to the verdict, the bench decided the source of the funds in question had still not been conclusively established, and it is this that the joint investigation team it has formed will focus on.

    It was not immediately clear if there were any implications for Sharif’s daughter, Maryam, a prominent leader of his ruling PML-N party.

    The judges ordered that the investigative body should be formed within seven days, and include representatives from the Federal Investigative Agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, the central bank, and other bodies. It will submit fortnightly reports to the Supreme Court.

    {{Corruption allegations}}

    The allegations focus on Sharif’s previous two terms in office in the 1990s, with opposition politician Imran Khan and others alleging the prime minister and his family illegally profited from his position.

    Security was tight around the capital Islamabad on Thursday morning, with dozens of police officers deputed to secure the government quarter where the Supreme Court is located.

    In 2016, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) leaked 11.5 million documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca. Included in those documents were letters showing that three of Sharif’s children – Maryam, Hassan and Hussain – were listed as beneficiaries for three companies registered in the British Virgin Islands.

    The documents showed these companies were involved in a 2007 loan of $13.8m, made using high-value Sharif-owned properties in the United Kingdom as collateral, and a separate 2007 transaction amounting to $11.2m.

    Owning off-shore companies is not illegal in Pakistan, but Sharif’s political opponents allege this $25m was gained through corruption during his previous two terms in office as prime minister in the 1990s.

    Sharif contends the money is in his children’s names and he was therefore not obliged to declare the assets on tax and other disclosure documents. Moreover, he claims it was raised through legitimate business deals, mostly based in the Gulf countries.

    Late last year, the Supreme Court took up the case, after months of wrangling between the government and opposition over the formation of a commission to probe the allegations.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Asylum seekers from US surge into Canada

    {Canada is on track to see the highest number of asylum claims in six years following the election of US President Trump.}

    Canadian authorities caught 887 asylum seekers crossing unlawfully into Canada from the United States in March, nearly triple the number in January.

    This brings the total number of asylum seekers caught walking across the border to 1,860 so far this year. The new statistics suggest those numbers could rise further as the weather warms.

    Canada is on track to see the highest number of asylum claims in six years, given the pace of claims filed so far, as increasing numbers of people cross into Canada to make refugee claims in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s election and his crackdown on refugees and migrants.

    “The majority of irregular migrants are holders of visas for the United States,” according to a statement released Wednesday from the office of Canada’s Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.

    “Canadian authorities are managing the increase in asylum seekers in a sound and measured way… To be clear – trying to slip across the border in an irregular manner is not a ‘free’ ticket to Canada.”

    Almost three-quarters of the asylum seekers caught crossing so far this year were taken into custody in Quebec, government data showed. Roxham Road, which straddles Champlain, New York and Hemmingford, Quebec, has become such a common spot that photographers cluster there and would-be refugees refer to it by name.

    Most of the others were taken into custody in Manitoba and British Columbia – 331 and 201, respectively.

    Police said on Wednesday they have charged 43-year-old Michelle Omoruyi with human smuggling and conspiracy to commit human smuggling.

    Police allege they found Omoruyi driving nine West African asylum seekers across the US border into the prairie province of Saskatchewan on Friday night. The nine asylum seekers have filed refugee claims and are not in custody.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Zimbabwe’s Tsvangirai and Mujuru in anti-Mugabe alliance

    {Two of Zimbabwe’s best known opposition figures have agreed to form an alliance against President Robert Mugabe.}

    Long-time Mugabe critic Morgan Tsvangirai and former Vice-President Joice Mujuru say they will work together in next year’s election.

    However, it is not yet clear which of them will be the presidential candidate.

    Mr Mugabe, 93, has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980 and has said he will seek re-election.

    Source:BBC

  • Nigeria’s Buhari suspends spy chief after $43m found in Lagos

    {Nigeria’s foreign spy chief Ayo Oke has been suspended after anti-corruption officers found more than $43m (£34m) in a flat in the main city, Lagos, the president’s office has said.}

    Muhammadu Buhari has ordered an investigation into how the spy agency headed by Mr Oke came into possession of the money, his office added.

    Mr Oke has not yet commented.

    However, unnamed intelligence officials told local media that the money was kept in the flat for covert operations.

    Anti-corruption officials have uncovered bundles of cash in Nigeria this year.

    Mr Buhari took office in 2015 with a pledge to root out corruption in government.

    In a statement, his office said he had also suspended his close aide, David Babachir Lawal, pending an investigation into contracts awarded to deal with the humanitarian crisis in the north-east. The region has been hit by an insurgency by militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

    A three-member panel, led by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, will investigate both cases, Mr Buhari’s office added.

    Apart from US notes worth $43.4m, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) found nearly £27,800 and some 23m naira ($75,000) at the empty flat in Lagos’s affluent Ikoyi suburb.

    The National Intelligence Agency (NIA), which led by Mr Oke, had laid claim to the money, Mr Buhari’s office said.

    The panel has been ordered to report within 14 days on who authorised the release of the money to the NIA and whether any laws or security procedures had been breached, Mr Buhari’s office added.

    Mr Oke would remain suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, it said.
    Last week, the EFCC said it carried out the raid after a tip-off that a woman, looking “haggard” and wearing “dirty clothes”, was taking bags in and out of the seventh-floor flat.

    The “neatly arranged” cash was stashed in “sealed wrappers” in wardrobes and cabinets in the four-bedroom flat, the EFCC added.

    In March, it said it had found “crispy” banknotes worth $155,000 at the airport in northern Kaduna city.

    Source:BBC