{{Teams from three New England colleges have won about $15,000 each in a student competition to design sustainable technologies that help protect public health and the environment.}}
Teams from Dartmouth College in Hanover designed a hydropower generation and distribution system to bring electricity to rural areas of Rwanda.
The technologies also aim at promoting economic development.
Teams from Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., University of Massachusetts in Lowell and the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, were among 45 teams nationwide to win awards in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s annual competition.
College of the Atlantic students designed a process to pre-treat food waste to produce liquid fuel and biogas.
At UMass-Lowell, students are designing a new class of non-toxic wetting agents used in soap and other items.
{{Mr. Beyon Luc Adolphe Tiao Prime Minister of Bourkina Faso has commended Rwanda’s progress in the past 18 years after the 1994 Genocide.}}
“No one can believe that in 18 years, Rwanda progressed like this” He said.
He was on a study tour in Northern Province of Rwanda.
Together with Rwandan officials, the visit was held in both Mutobo reintegration Centre and Butaro Hospital locating in Musanze.
He was impressed with how government puts emphasis on improving living conditions among citizens by starting from local population.
He said that establishment of Butaro Hospital in a remote area is the sign that Rwanda values lives of citizens irrespective the boundaries.
Prime Minister Luc A. Tiao also said that he was interested in Rwanda’s Health Insurance system and Girinka program aiming at eradicating poverty among poor families.
While paying visit to Mutobo reintegration Centre, he was briefed on how former soldiers are being reintegrated in Rwandan society.
The former FDLR Combatant has testified to PM of Bourkina Faso that during his time in bush he was not good.
The Premier calls upon former fighters to be committed to the development of Rwanda by focusing on one goal.
{{In a recent article published in The New Times, it was reported that a study commissioned by the Ministry of Youth and ICT and carried out by a team of researchers from Kigali Health Institute found out that “52.5% of youth in Rwanda have at least once taken drugs, and 92.7% of that population group kept on consuming them”}}.
This would imply that 48.66% of all Rwandan youth consume drugs. Another misleading element in the article is the reference to trafficking, which was not covered by the said report.
Considered out of their proper context, these numbers would undoubtedly be alarming.
To put things in perspective, the public needs to know that the research considered as “drug” both legal and illegal substances.
Out of the 52.5% reported as consuming drugs, the same research further states that about only 5 % have ever tried an illegal substance mainly cannabis whose lifetime prevalence stood at 4.4% and 2.54% reported problems of dependence on it.
The other most prevalent illegal drugs are illicit brews such as Kanyanga, solvents (glue) and local brews prepared from sorghum, sugar, etc. collectively responsible for about 1% of reported cases of drug use.
These findings point out to the relatively high level use of alcohol (34%) and tobacco (8.5%) among the youth (14 – 35 years of age).
What is most important, is to note that the commissioning of the report was by itself an acknowledgment that drug abuse among the youth was indeed a serious problem that deserves policy attention and action which wouldn’t be based on mere anecdotic evidence.
The study informed and strengthened a number of on-going programmes by the Ministry and its public and non-profit stakeholders to tackle the issue of drug abuse and its consequences on the youth.
Most importantly, it justified on-going policy and regulatory reviews, geared towards making Rwanda a drug-free country.
The campaign for drug eradication was launched by Her Excellency the First Lady Jeanette Kagame in December 2011.
In response to her call, the Ministry of Youth and ICT initiated the “Neighbour’s eye” (Ijisho ry’umuturanyi) which aims at pushing the campaign to the village level (umudugudu).
The programme is a partnership between MYICT (Ministry of Youth and ICT), Imbuto Foundation, the National Police, the Ministry of Local Government, Faith-based organisations and a number of other public and non-for-profit stakeholders.
To-date, the campaign has established anti-drugs committees in all the14, 813 villages of Rwanda.
Iwawa Rehabilitation and Skills Training Centre is another home-grown solution to assist those who have fallen victims of drug addiction leading to petty crime.
So far the programme rehabilitated and graduated 2,056 young men in a range of vocational skills that include carpentry, construction, commercial farming and tailoring. Today, the centre hosts 1,936 youth.
The programme has achieved remarkable success whereby more than 90 per cent of graduates were successfully reintegrated back into their communities as responsible and productive citizens.
However, to win the battle against alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use among young Rwandans, it will take much more than policy, government backed programmes and law enforcement.
There has to be a mind-set change towards the traditional and cultural value of these substances.
Parents, educators and communities need to play a leading role by protecting children against exposure to these substances at a tender age.
The writer is the Minister of Youth and ICT of the Republic of Rwanda.
Speaking to Uganda’s Monitor, Mr Betrano Bisimwa in photo above explored several issues concerning the Eastern Congo crisis. below is a full interview…
{{What does the name M23 Movement mean?}}
M23 is a platform for the different armed groups and political movements that signed a peace accord with the government of DR Congo on March 23, 2009.
These movements requested the government to fully implement the accord but also bring good governance to our country.
Therefore, our name is from March 23, the date when we signed this accord. This was CNDP, on the one hand with other armed groups, and on the other hand, it was DR Congo.
Therefore, the M23 is composed of all these groups. We want the government to implement fully the peace accord it signed with these groups.
{{Why are you fighting}}?
We are not fighting the government. We are reacting to the attacks by Kinshasa. When we told Kinshasa that we wanted the peace process to be implemented fully, they reacted by attacking us.
We found ourselves in a situation to have to defend ourselves. We acted in self-defence.
What do you make of the allegations by the government and the international community that you are committing atrocities against the people in eastern Congo?
I would like to emphasise one thing. This is propaganda by the Kinshasa government. They are accusing us of things that have never happened.
The crimes in DR Congo are committed by the government. DR Congo is in a chaotic phase. There is nobody in control of this country. Some of these reports are drafted by people in their offices in Paris and Washington.
Those who dare to come to Congo, stop in Kinshasa where they get fabricated intelligence. We have asked so many times that an independent inquiry be put in place by any international mechanism to verify those allegations. These allegations are baseless.
{{Hasn’t the UN written reports talking about areas where you have recruited children?}}
We recently captured Goma, and journalists, NGOs were there. No one saw a single child soldier among our soldiers. We operate in daylight. These allegations, accusations and counter-accusations are just fabricated for purposes of propaganda.
We wrote a letter to the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, requesting the leaders to put in place a commission of inquiry because we do not participate in the ICGLR meetings but the government does.
This correspondence was sent but there was no follow up. If the DR Congolese government was sure about the allegations, they would have seized this opportunity and follow up with the ICGLR.
But they didn’t because they know these are fabricated allegations.
These allegations cannot be proved. If a commission of inquiry was sent there and they found that there was no single case of murder, or any other atrocity in the areas controlled by the M23, then the whole case would fail.
The current secretary General of ICGLR is Congolese, appointed by the government but we don’t understand why he didn’t seize this opportunity to put in place that commission of inquiry to bring evidence.
{{What about allegations that you are a proxy group for Uganda and Rwanda formed to fight Kinshasa and that you have no cause to fight for?}}
When we signed the peace agreement with the government and they failed to implement it, is this not a cause? When we say that Congo is not governed or that public service is non-existent is this not a cause?
When we say that Congo is populated by foreign armed groups operating with the help of the government and are raping and killing Congolese women, are these not causes? When a national group is systematically marginalised and relegated because of their ethnic origin, isn’t this not a cause to fight for?
When the whole country goes into elections, rigs and declares somebody who got minority votes as president, isn’t it a cause that people can fight for?
After all, these causes that I have enumerated, we are also trying to ask those making the allegations whether these are Ugandan and Rwandan causes. What is the immediate interest that Uganda and Rwanda may have as a result of all these factors I have talked about?
They are not the ones that created these problems in Congo. When they allege that Rwanda and Uganda are helping M23, it’s a way of trying to divert attention from the real issues and find scapegoat.
{{Why would the international community be against you if you have problems with Kinshasa?}}
The answer is simple: The international community, represented by the UN, is not with us because they are partners with the government. In fact, the UN has ceased to be a force that is neutral. If they had come to us in order to understand our concerns, they would have listened to our side.
They are held prisoners of their principle of neutrality. It’s only recently that the people of Palestine were admitted and given a position at the UN. The UN considers governments as its partners and the UN Secretary General works for the union of the governments.
However, the UN was one of the signatories of the March 23 agreement. But they have kept quiet.
They are actually part of the problem. They cannot go public and say that they have failed in Congo. They have failed and they continue to fail because they don’t put in efforts to understand the needs of the people of Congo. Recently, when we were fighting in Goma, the government troops were backed by the UN.
They used UN helicopters and bombed our troops and we lost a number of fighters. When the UN workers are coming to work in Congo, they get their accreditation from Kinshasa. That’s why they do not understand us.
{{You continuously say that the Congolese government has failed to implement the March 23 agreement. What are those issues Kinshasa has refused or failed to implement?}}
First, it was the repatriation of refugees who have been living in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi for 18 years. These refugees were supposed to be repatriated when we signed the agreement in 2009. But no one was repatriated until the election of 2011 when few of them were brought back.
The refugees are seen as foreigners. They are not considered Congolese.
Secondly, we had agreed with the government that permanent reconciliation committees be created at the grassroots level so that we tackle all the problems that may arise as a result of tribal and ethnic conflict.
Apart from that, the government made a formal commitment to put in place a ministerial structure that would be in charge of national reconciliation since 2009.
This ministerial structure was not put in place and nothing was done with regard to national reconciliation.
We see danger, when people were chased away from their land in 1996, their properties, including their ancestral land were seized by those who remained.
We told the government that before these people are repatriated, we need systems in place to sort out all these challenges. Let the government show the world these structures exist and that we have no point to make.
The third and the most important is that our accord also had incorporated the Great Lakes region security agreement on all negative forces operating in Congo, have to be neutralised and eradicated.
But as you may be aware, the FDLR that’s well known operates jointly and manages Ishasha, a very important border point with Uganda with Kinshasa government.
They are the ones controlling this border point. Why would a serious government give part of its territory to a foreign rebel group to manage it? That country has an obligation to disarm this negative force.
{{What about those who say that you want to secede from DR Congo and form a new state called Kivu?}}
As M23, we believe that we are not even competent to talk about creation of a new state of Kivu as they allege. We believe that this is the choice of the people that can decide how they want to be governed.
When you try to talk about their weaknesses, they use propaganda to cause confusion.
If we were to create a state, we would not create a small state. Our interest is clear. We want to have a government in Kinshasa that protects its people.
Our concerns are national. We are condemning poor leadership.
We are condemning poor service delivery. In fact, to be realistic, DR Congo is like a country that does not exist. We have resources that no other country has, but we are the poorest, ever suffering.
We want this to end. Therefore, to hide its weaknesses, the government wants to portray us as people who want to secede.
{{Do you see these peace talks succeeding?}}
Our position is that these negotiations must succeed and whoever will be responsible for failure of the talks, will be answerable to the people of Congo.
The Congolese will decide on that person’s fate. We have the obligation to succeed. We have made sacrifices for peace. When we captured Goma, the whole world said it wanted to listen to grievances on the condition that we withdraw.
We had gone beyond Goma. But because of peace, we withdrew 60km and went to our old positions. We have made so many sacrifices. Whoever participates in the failure of these negotiations, will have to pay a price.
Will you resume fighting and recapture Goma if the negotiations fail?
Our aim is not to take new areas.
We are aware, cautious and very sorry about this war and the suffering it has caused to our people who are now tired of fighting.
We are optimistic that these talks will continue and end well. If our aim was to capture ground, we would have captured many more towns because we have the capacity.
We are not the ones who started this war. But if the talks fail, the people of Congo will decide the next move.
We have seen your forces dressed in new uniforms, new boots and carrying strong weapons. Where do you get these from?
Everybody knows that the M23 soldiers came from the government side. They came with their guns. All the commanders we have were big commanders in the government units.
They came with soldiers and their logistics. It’s also well known that when we are fighting government forces, they abandon everything on the battlefield.
They abandon weapons and ammunitions in the quantities that we cannot even manage.
Recently, in Goma, we captured thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition, including BMs and we are saying, if unfortunately, we were attacked today and we used these weapons that we got from Goma, the whole world would say these arms were supplied by Rwanda.
We got 33 containers full of weapons and ammunition. We have more than enough weapons.
We don’t need to ask from the neighbours. Why should we ask for weapons from Rwanda, or Uganda or Burundi, when we can get them easily from the government soldiers who abandon them on the battlefield?
{{A new intelligence assessment of global trends by a US-based intelligence council projects that Rwanda is at high risk of becoming a failed state within the next 18 years}}.
The 140-page report that is released every four years, after the US President is elected by the National Intelligence Council says Rwanda and 14 other countries risk becoming a failed state because of their potential for conflict and environmental ills.
The other 14 countries in the same category are Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, Burundi,Uganda, Somalia, DR Congo, Malawi and Yemen, among others.
It says by 2030, middle classes in the developing world are expected to balloon, while the tools of war, including cyber and biological weapons, are predicted to become more readily available.
Climate change is destined to make wet places wetter, and dry places more arid. And new communication technologies are described as a “double-edged sword.”
A product of four years of intelligence-gathering and analysis, the study, by the National Intelligence Council, presents grounds for optimism and pessimism in nearly equal measure.
The report states that China will outstrip the US as the leading economic power before 2030, but US will remain an indispensable world leader, bolstered in part by an era of energy independence.
Russia’s clout will wane, as will the economic strength of other countries reliant on oil for revenues, the assessment says. “There will not be any hegemonic power,” the report says. “Power will shift to networks and coalitions in a multipolar world.”
{{Middle class}}
One remarkable development it anticipates is a spreading affluence that leads to a larger global middle class that is better educated and has wider access to health care and communications technologies like the Internet and smartphones.
“The growth of the global middle class constitutes a tectonic shift,” the study says, adding that billions of people will gain new individual power as they climb out of poverty.
“For the first time, a majority of the world’s population will not be impoverished, and the middle classes will be the most important social and economic sector in the vast majority of countries around the world.”
At the same time, it warns, half of the world’s population will probably be living in areas that suffer from severe shortages of fresh water, meaning that management of natural resources will be a crucial component of global national security efforts.
The study also warns of the risk that terrorists could mount a computer-network attack in which the casualties would be measured not by the hundreds or thousands killed but by the millions severely affected by damaged infrastructure, like electrical grids being taken down.
The study acknowledges that the future “is malleable,” and it lists important “game changers” that will most influence the global scene through 2030: a crisis-prone world economy, shortcomings in governance, conflicts within states and between them, the impact of new technologies and whether the US can “work with new partners to reinvent the international system.”
{{Two thousand four hundred and five children were raped countrywide out of the 3 421 cases reported between January and October this year. }}
According to police statistics, neighbours perpetrated 41 percent, while relatives accounted for 27 percent of the cases.
Officer commanding the Victim Friendly Unit Assistant Commissioner Isabella Sergio yesterday said the rape of juveniles continued to increase countrywide.
“As an organisation we are obviously worried by the fact that children continue to bear the brunt of sexual offences.
“The majority of reported cases have been perpetrated against children under the age of 18 years,” she said.
Asst Comm Sergio was speaking at the launch of ZRP’s Crime Awareness Campaign in Harare.
She said rapists seemed to take advantage of children’s naivety, vulnerability and inability to protect themselves.
She said parents had become careless and left their children in the custody of potential rapists.
“Parents leave minors in the custody of male relatives or their neighbours as they go about their activities. This exposes them to sexual abuse.”
Asst Comm Sergio said during school days, some children go to and from school unaccompanied with some of them using shortcuts such as secluded areas exposing themselves to danger.
Some parents even let their children sell various wares on street corners, shopping centres and residential homes where they could be subjected to sexual harassment and abuse.
“What has become more worrisome now is that boys under the age of 18 years have developed a habit of sexually abusing young girls below 12 years.
“These teenage boys take advantage of unaccompanied minors left in their custody or waylay them in secluded footpaths, bushy areas and maize fields as well as along the distances between schools and homesteads especially in rural areas,” she said.
She said lack of accommodation for families had also resulted in children sharing bedrooms with male relatives and this subjected them to abuse.
Asst Comm Sergio said children were also lured with cash, private lessons and transport in private vehicles before being raped by some unscrupulous individuals, teachers, motorists and male relatives.
“Rape of juveniles is characterised by late reporting. The majority of cases are rather discovered than disclosed,” she said.
She also expressed concern over date rape as some boyfriends were in the habit of putting noxious substances in their girlfriends’ drinks before raping them.
Asst Comm Sergio said domestic violence cases were also on the increase.
So far, she said, 9 807 cases have been reported countrywide compared to last year’s 8 296.
“Murders as a result of domestic violence also continue to rise. The link between domestic violence and technology has become very significant as a number of cases emanate from invasion of privacy particularly through cellphones and e-mails.
“Infidelity and misuse of family income are other major causes of domestic violence,” she said.
She urged the public to report all cases or suspected cases of sexual abuse and domestic violence.
{{South African President Jacob Zuma has defended his record at the opening of the African National Congress (ANC) conference at which his position is being challenged.}}
His deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, is contesting the party leadership.
But one of South Africa’s richest businessmen, Cyril Ramaphosa, lent his support to Mr Zuma by standing for the deputy leadership of the ANC.
Mr Ramaphosa played a key role in the transition to black-majority rule.
He was the pre-eminent union leader in the dying days of apartheid and negotiated the end of white rule.
But after losing out to Thabo Mbeki in the race to succeed Nelson Mandela as president, he turned to business, and created the Shanduka Group of industries.
Zuma said the country was now ready to “move into the second phase in which we will focus on achieving meaningful socio-economic freedom”.
{{In the UK, Ministers have rejected plans to automatically block internet access to pornography on all computers, saying the move is not widely supported.}}
A public consultation found 35% of parents wanted an automatic bar while 15% wanted some content filtered, and an option to block other material.
But the government says internet providers should encourage parents to switch on parental controls.
Claire Perry, the MP who led the campaign, said she was “disappointed”.
The NSPCC said parents’ voices were not being heard.
There were more than 3,500 responses to the 10-week consultation – which included those from members of the public, academics, charities and communication firms as well as 757 from parents.
Respondents were asked to answer “yes”, “no” or “maybe” to three separate questions about how internet service providers (ISP) could play a role in limiting access.
An automatic block would mean users would have to actively request that pornographic content was made available by their ISP.
Mrs Perry, the Conservative MP for Devizes in Wiltshire, led the campaign and handed over a petition to Downing Street containing more than 115,000 names.
{{American technology pioneer John McAfee said he faked a heart attack while detained in Guatemala to buy time for his attorney to file a series of appeals that ultimately prevented his deportation to Belize, hastening the government’s decision to send him back to the United States.}}
After weeks on the run and days in immigration detention, McAfee arrived in Miami on Wednesday.
He said Belize authorities in April 2011 accused him of running a methamphetamine lab, before the November 11 killing of his neighbor, American businessman Gregory Faull, and have since persecuted him.
“I have absolutely nothing to do with the murder in Belize,” he said Thursday. “This is not about a murder in Belize. This began on the 30th of April of last year when 42 armed soldiers stormed my property.”
After weeks in hiding, the 67-year-old antivirus software company founder emerged in Guatemala’s capital last week to ask for asylum.
Guatemalan authorities took him into custody on accusations of entering the country illegally, and his asylum bid was rejected.
McAfee then waged a public battle, requesting asylum and arguing that police in Belize were after him following his apparent decision to shed light on corruption in the country.
{{The mother of Nigeria’s Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been released by her kidnappers, five days after she was seized from her home, Nigerian police said Friday.}}
Kamene Okonjo is well and in good health, police spokesman Frank Mba told media.
“The Okonjo Family is full of thanks to the Almighty for this happy development,” a finance ministry spokesman said in a statement.
