KABULA NKARANGO MASANJA GOES HOME TO TANZANIA

1st of Tanzanian albino kids with missing limbs goes home

By VERENA DOBNIK 18 hours ago

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Associated Press Videos

New Hope For Africa's Hunted Albino Children

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NEW YORK (AP) — Kabula Nkarango Masanja returned home to Tanzania with a new American prosthetic arm replacing the limb that was chopped off with a machete by followers of African witchcraft.

She's one of Tanzania's children with albinism, a condition that leaves people with little or no pigment in their skin, hair or eyes. Their severed body parts are used in potions witch doctors believe bring wealth and good luck. The soft-spoken 17-year-old Kabula is now one of the lucky ones.

Doctors at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Philadelphia recently created new artificial limbs for Kabula and four other youngsters. And New York City resident Elissa Montanti provided housing about two hours away in the borough of Staten Island and organized all their daily, medical and travel needs.
Kabula boarded a plane Tuesday at Kennedy Airport, heading to Tanzania's capital, Dar es Salaam. She'd been in the United States since June with the four other children, ages 5 to 15, who also were fitted with prosthetics.

"God be with you till we meet again," she wrote neatly on a piece of paper left for Montanti and the Global Medical Relief Fund, the charity she founded.

Montanti, who lives up the street from the charity's "Dare to Dream" house, has spent years flying in children missing limbs from dozens of crisis zones including Bosnia, Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria.

 

Kabula Nkarango Masanja waits during a prosthetic limb fitting, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015, at Shriners  …

 

"But I have never, ever been so pained as watching these children," says the 62-year-old former radiation technician.

While the 200 or so youths Montanti has helped were victims of land mines, earthquakes, tsunamis and other disasters, "this is deliberate" she said of the witchcraft victims.

Lacking natural pigmentation, people with albinism look almost white — ghosts of departed humans, according to witch doctors who order body parts to be hacked off: hair, nails, teeth, tongues, hands, feet, even genitals. More than 200 witch doctors have been arrested so far in the killings of Tanzanians with albinism. The government outlawed witch doctors last year.

Still, attacks continue; at least eight were recorded in Tanzania in the past year.
There's another, even more cruel twist.

 

Elissa Montanti, founder and director of the Global Medical Relief Fund, center, places a hand on Pe …

 

Some parents are collaborators because "they still believe their children are cursed," says Ester Rwela, a social worker who accompanies the children and translates their Swahili language.

The father of 5-year-old Baraka Cosmas Lusambo was arrested after part of the little boy's right arm was sliced off last March amid ear-piercing screams.

Tanzanian diamond dealers, businessmen and politicians have paid as much as $75,000 to hunt albino people, says Rwela. "Elections are high season for the witch doctors," she says. "And people with albinism live in fear."

But the kids' lives aren't consumed by the monstrosities.
"Guess what? They're still capable of loving," says Montanti, who constantly holds their hands and hugs them.

 

Baraka Cosmas Lusambo, left, and Mwigulu Matonange Magesa play before of an occupational therapy ses …

 

them to Philadelphia to fine-tune the prostheses and learn to use them.
Emmanuel Festo Rutema, a 13-year-old missing his left arm and several fingers on his right hand, also goes to a dentist to replace the front teeth knocked out as a witchcraft prize. Attackers tried to cut out his tongue but only damaged it.

On a summer afternoon in the Staten Island home, the rooms are alive with laughter.
"Baraka Obama!"

That's the nickname his friends jokingly call the small boy. He cracks a shy smile, adding, "I don't know who Obama is."

 

Monica Watson, left, with the Global Medical Relief Fund, Ester Rwela, with Under The Same Sun, back …

 

On the sofa, Emmanuel is playing cards with 12-year-old Mwigulu Matonange Magesa, who's wearing a hooked extension of his left arm to pick up the cards. It's an easier tool than the prosthetic hand he hasn't yet mastered.

Kabula is studying for the school exam she faces after returning to Dar es Salaam, where she and the other four have been living in a "safe house" far from their impoverished villages.

"God says forgive your enemies, but as a human being, I cannot forgive them, because they can do this again," says the teen, whose right arm was cut off to the armpit.
She wants to become a human rights lawyer.

At Kennedy, Kabula wiped tears from her eyes, crestfallen at the prospect of leaving her friends and the safety of New York.

 

Kabula Nkarango Masanja, 17, right, smiles with Elissa Montanti, founder and director of the Global  …

 

"But I told her, 'this is not the end, it's only a bright new beginning,'" says Montanti.

The other children are leaving in late September. And they'll be back next year for new prostheses matching their growth.

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Online:

Global Medical Relief Fund: http://www.gmrfchildren.org

ALLIANCE FOR CHANGE AND TRASPARENCY [ACT-WAZALENDO] PARTY TO REVIVE PRINCIPLES OF UJAMAA {SOCIALISM} !!

 

BY QUEENTER MAWINDA

4th September 2015

 

  To revive 'some' principles of Ujamaa

Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT-Wazalendo) presidential candidate Anna Mghwira stresses a point during an exclusive interview with The Guardian in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT-Wazalendo) presidential candidate Anna Mghwira yesterday vowed to nationalise some “industries” if she is voted into power next month.

She said her party would do so in reliving Founding President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere’s socialist ideology and ACT-Wazalendo’s own Tabora Declaration and election manifesto.

Mghwira, the only female candidate for Tanzania’s presidency in the October 25 General Election, said the move would seek to alleviate poverty and improve the country’s economy. 

“The party is bent on reviving our country’s socialist ideology,” she said in the exclusive interview with this paper in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

She clarified, though, that her party was not advocating “blanket complete or blind nationalisation of private property,” adding: “But it is our wish to revive some Ujamaa principles and restore social justice, accountability, equality and leadership ethics.”

Mghwira said her government would nationalise some industries in a bid to ensure proper supervision of the country’s natural and other resources in order to develop a self-reliant economy. 

“We want to put the economy in the hands of the people,” she said, elaborating: “Every citizen has the right to benefit from our God-given resources instead of helplessly looking on as the resources are enjoyed by a few people.”

She said the move would go hand in hand with stepped-up participation of women in the economy, noting: “It is crucial that women across Africa form a platform that will bring them to one table at which they will discuss the challenges they face and how to meet them.”. 

“Women all over the continent are facing similar challenges especially in politics,” she noted.

On a different plane, she said Tanzania’s economic development was being undermined by incompetence and irresponsible people in positions of authority. 

“My government will hold accountable all irresponsible and corrupt leaders,” she said, adding: “Patriotism is a scarce item among civil servants... Many leaders are thinking only of themselves instead of the country and the nation.”

ACT-Wazalendo launched its General Election campaigns at the weekend, promising to place leadership ethics first and to re-do the review of the country’s Constitution.

The party also promised to increase the number of primary school years from seven to ten “in order to help ensure better student performance”.

Speaking at the launch, Mghwira cited plans to revamp the economy saying in order to transform the country’s economy, ACT would work to boost agriculture through the establishment of the agriculture regulatory authority.

She said under her leadership and in accordance to the party’s election manifesto, economic transformation will grow at a rate of 10 per cent in a decade.

Following the Arusha Declaration of 1967, in which the country’s first President Julius Nyerere laid out his vision for self-reliance, many industries were nationalised and new industrial parastatals created. 

Nevertheless, half of all industries remained in private hands during the socialist period and Mwalimu Nyerere argued that a private sector was necessary for economic growth to occur. 

By the mid-1970s, however, the growth within the sector that had been achieved in the first few years of independence began to slow down.

Productivity in many of the industrial parastatals started to fall around the mid-1970s, mainly owing to chronic underutilisation of their capacity. 

Some once buoyant textile mills were operating at less than 10 per cent capacity by the mid-1980s. As a result, many of these parastatals became more dependent on government subsidies as their profits dwindled further.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

DIVER BREAKS UP MORTAL COMBAT BETWEEN DEADLY SEA SNAKE AND STONEFISH IN AUSTRALIA !!!

Diver breaks up mortal combat between deadly sea snake, stonefish

Danny Gallagher

September 3, 2015

 

This article, Diver breaks up mortal combat between deadly sea snake, stonefish, originally appeared on CNET.com.

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Trippe says the sea snake was approximately 2 meters (6.5 feet) long.

Rick Trippe

If an average person happened upon the world's most poisonous snake and the world's most poisonous fish engaged in battle, stepping between them would probably be the last idea to come to mind. Leaving the area and trying to find a change of underpants would be more likely.

But for experienced diver and fisherman Rick Trippe of Darwin, Australia, breaking up such a deadly struggle of nature didn't even require a second thought.

The Australian realtor with a passion for being on the water found a sea snake and stonefish fighting each other during a Thursday trip in Darwin Harbor. He separated them with his own two hands and set them both free. The photos he posted of the encounter on his Facebook page quickly went viral, netting him emails from around the globe that probably contain phrases like "Are you insane?!?"

Trippe told CNET's Crave blog that he and a friend had just "up-anchored from an old World War II wreck and were feeling pretty chuffed" about the fish they caught when he first noticed the sea snake.

"We were going to our next wreck when we saw something in the middle of the harbor but couldn't make out what it says," Trippe said. "So with curiosity, we motored over to find a massive sea snake. It was close to 2 meters (6.5 feet) long and thick. As we approached the sea snake, we saw that it had a stonefish in its mouth."

Sea snakes and stonefish are classified as the most venomous members of their respective species. Sea snakes are actually docile -- they "don't want to touch humans" and don't always inject venom when they bite, Trippe says -- but he adds that their venom is "five times deadlier than a cobra's."

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Diver Rick Trippe holds up a sea snake and a stonefish that he found fighting in Darwin Harbor.

Rick Trippe

Stonefish, also known as scorpion fish, inject their venom through the row of spines along their back. The stonefish's venom can cause intense pain that may take up to two days to recover from and can be fatal if injected into a person's chest or abdomen.

Trippe's photos show the snake's mouth locked on the stonefish's back where its poisonous spines are located. Trippe says he knew the stonefish wouldn't have a chance of surviving once the snake injected it with its venom but he still felt moved to break up the battle.

"Being an animal lover, I grabbed the snake just behind the head with serious precaution knowing that sea snakes are highly venomous, and untangled the stonefish, also poisonous, from its mouth and body," Trippe told CNET. "I released the now-happy snake from its impediment, but moments later, the snake swam around making a beeline for the not-so-happy stonefish and a second attempt."

Trippe says he knew by that point that the snake won and would have a tasty meal as the spoils of its victory. So he says he let it swim away and continued his trip. He didn't learn just how poisonous the snake he held in his hand was until he got in front of a computer. "Lucky I handled it with such care and didn't get bitten or I may not be here to tell the story or share these fabulous pictures," Trippe said.

Trippe says he has plenty of experience handling snakes and stonefish, unlike most people who get shivers just thinking about them. So he felt confident enough handling what turned out to be the most poisonous snake and fish in the world.

"People think I'm crazy, but I used to have a chicken coop and I would shine a torch in there and pull pythons out of there all the time, so I'm used to handling snakes," Trippe said. "Also, a friend of mine has a marine aquarium and I learned how to handle a stonefish from him. You just place a cap over the fish and slide a knife underneath it, but you have to be extremely careful because getting hit with a spike is very, very painful."

Trippe also says he takes "any chance I can" to go diving and fishing and quips that he feels "more danger on the street than I do in the ocean."

I think we've got a new Crocodile Hunter on our hands, folks. Quick, someone call Animal Planet!

LOWASSA EXPERIENCING DARE ES SALAAM PUBLIC TRANSPORT WOES !!!

BY DAVID KISANGA, THE  GUARDIAN,  TANZANIA

25th August 2015

Ukawa-endorsed Chadema presidential candidate Edward Lowassa among passengers in a commuter bus serving the Gongo la Mboto-to-Chanika route in suburban Dsm yesterday morning.

As part of his political campaign, Ukawa-endorsed Chadema presidential candidate Edward Lowassa yesterday decided to experience first-hand Dar es Salaam’s public transport woes.

 

Ukawa is the Kiswahili acronym for the Coalition of People’s Constitution, which brings together four opposition parties – Chadema (Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo), Civic United Front, NCCR-Mageuzi and National League for Democracy.

 

The former Prime Minister boarded a commuter bus and engaged with voters, many of whom said he has scored a first in so doing.

 

Lowassa started his trip by boarding a bus at the Chanika suburban centre in Ilala District, alighting at Mbagala Rangi Tatu in Temeke District. He was accompanied by his running mate, former Zanzibar deputy minister Juma Duni Haji, and various party officials. 

 

Business in the city came close to a standstill at most commuter bus stations he passed through, with supporters and curious onlookers scrambling to get to see him. 

   

He did not address the gradually swelling crowds but left that to his running mate, who told journalists that the impromptu tour was meant to address the public and to experience the challenges public transport in the city of four million or so people poses. 

 

“We have come to get first-hand experience of what ordinary people routinely go through,” said Haji, adding that the trip was not meant to grow into a rally and that the party would launch its countrywide General Election campaigns on Saturday.

 

Without disclosing the venue, he called on the city’s residents to turn up in massive numbers on Saturday for the grand launch 

One Mbagala resident applauded Lowassa, calling him an exceptional leader and adding: “Most leaders stay cocooned in their offices, but he has come out to us.”

 

CCM launched its presidential campaigns at the Jangwani grounds in Dar es Salaam, again bringing the city to a near standstill as people converged there in their thousands.

 

This year’s General Election will be the fifth since re-introduction of a multi-party political system in Tanzania in 1992. Voters will elect the President, Members of Parliament and local government leaders. 

 

According to the National Electoral Commission, election campaigns will run from August 22 to October 24, just a day before Polling Day.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

TANZANIA'S MOST ANTICIPATED GENERAL ELECTIONS ON 25 OCTOBER, 2015

​Source: The East African​

The recent falling out between old political allies and the emergence of new alliances in Tanzania has set the stage for the most eagerly anticipated election in the country’s history. It is also an electoral contest that will be closely watched across the region.

The high-profile defection of former prime minister Edward Lowassa from the Chama cha Mapinduzi followed by a spate of resignations by top officials has given the opposition a sense of momentum that has been on display at a number of rallies staged in several towns in recent weeks.

But the opposition Umoja wa Katiba ya Wananchi (Ukawa) alliance will be coming up against a political party machine in CCM that has long been regarded as one of the most disciplined and effective on the continent — one that has not lost a presidential election since 1961.

“This is clearly a unique election,” said Dr Benson Bana, a political scientist at the University of Dar es Salaam.

“The unexpected unity of the political opposition poses an interesting challenge to the ruling party. At the same time, CCM also picked a candidate in John Magufuli who has been distinguished throughout his career as a hard worker and who is not tainted by corruption. This has created an element of excitement and some uncertainty going into the election.”

READ: Defections may ‘dent’ CCM image
 
Across social media and in power circles in East Africa, the campaigns in Tanzania have stirred an excitement that has not been seen in around a Tanzanian election before.

This attention has been underpinned not only by what some pundits describe as the stiffest challenge to the ruling party for more than half a century but also by the tense diplomatic relations between the Tanzanian government and several neighbours during President Jakaya Kikwete’s time in office.

President Kikwete’s old ally turned bitter political rival, Edward Lowassa, has explicitly framed his candidacy as a chance to help Tanzania take its place as a regional economic powerhouse and to fulfill its potential.

“This country will move at a pace never seen before [if I am elected],” Mr Lowassa told a rally at the Kibanda Maiti grounds in Zanzibar on August 17.

“There is no reason why Tanzania, which has far more resources, should be left behind by neighbours like Malawi, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. I promise you I will wake up those who are sleeping on the job. Where else do you have port workers clocking off at 6pm and leaving ships unattended, or people doing a 30 minute job in 30 days?”      
 
The reference to the port issue highlights why the election will be followed closely across regional capitals.

In recent years, the most striking development on the regional integration front has been the emergence of the Northern Corridor axis comprising Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.
Leaders in the these countries have teamed up to endorse a number of big-ticket infrastructure projects to the seeming exclusion of Tanzania and Burundi.

READ: Dar is in EAC to stay despite isolation strategy

Those developments, which were seen as favouring Kenya’s Mombasa port over Dar es Salaam, saw President Kikwete make an extraordinary speech in the Tanzanian parliament in November 2013 accusing his compatriots of running a campaign of isolation against him.

The outcome of the election could well shape the relations between the various capitals in the region with implications for the future viability of multibillion-dollar investments in new ports in Lamu in Kenya and Bagamoyo in Tanzania.

READ: Kenya’s new northern transport corridor promises region $2.6bn

Underlying the rhetoric over the economics of port efficiency, however, are long-standing geopolitical tensions between various players, particularly Kigali and Dar, over the legacy of the 1994 genocide.

The furious reaction of Paul Kagame’s administration to a May 2013 suggestion by President Kikwete that regional powers hold talks with players such as the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), which stands accused of carrying out the genocide, sent relations between Rwanda and Tanzania into a deep freeze marked by the expulsion of Rwandese refugees from Tanzania and tit for tat withdrawals of diplomats.

Ties between the two parties have improved in recent months but the succession will be watched closely in Rwanda and in Burundi, too, where Tanzania has been one of the parties seeking to manage the crisis triggered by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s third-term bid.

READ: Tanzania, Rwanda quietly mending fences after two years of cold war
 
In Uganda, much commentary has focused on whether an opposition party can claim victory through the ballot box and on what that might mean, psychologically, going into the country’s own 2016 presidential election.

But analysts say the more urgent question, considering Tanzania’s historical status as one of the continent’s most stable democracies and its prominent role in regional peace efforts, is how its institutions will cope with what is expected to be a tightly contested election.

Dr Bana says an early casualty has been Tanzania’s reputation for having solid, well-established political parties. This election, he says, will revolve more around personalities, which he describes as an unfortunate development.

Mr Lowassa’s defection to an opposition alliance that had strongly criticised him when he was in the ruling party, particularly during the 2010 election, in relation to his forced resignation over the Richmond power supply scandal has proved a subject for intense debate. At least two leading opposition figures quit the alliance over the former prime minister’s selection as the main candidate.

READ: Rifts appear in Opposition over Lowassa ticket
 
In several speeches in the past week, Kikwete has made references to the deep pockets of the opposition leader, indirectly questioning his integrity. “No one is going to be able to buy all Tanzanians so that he or she can be elected a leader,” he said.

But opposition politicians such as Singida East MP Tundu Lissu of Chadema dismissed the President’s remarks that many recognised Mr Lowassa as a leader capable of taking Tanzania to a new level and the opposition as a better alternative to the ruling party.

“People don’t vote with their feet in the large numbers we are witnessing unless there is real frustration at the status quo,” he said.

Main opposition party Chadema acting secretary-general Salum Mwalimu told The EastAfrican that the most important question was whether the CCM would be willing to give up power if it lost.    
“It is obvious in which direction this election is going,” he said. “The people are tired and want change, but we hope that those in power are willing to listen to the will of the people and step aside for the country to move in a new direction.”

The opposition has sought to regionalise and internationalise the campaign, repeatedly warning top members of the security forces that they could face action at the International Criminal Court like senior Kenyans did after the disputed 2007 election.

“For a long time, Tanzania has tried to play big brother in the region and pointed fingers at others,” said Ismail Jussa, an MP and senior member of the CUF, which is part of the Ukawa coalition, shortly after Mr Lowassa’s rally in Zanzibar.

“Now regional players and others in the international community should follow the election closely and where there are violations they should have the courage to speak up just as Tanzania has always done. Also, it is important for people of high integrity and with the right skills to be ready to intervene in the event that the election is viewed as a sham.”

Ruling party members have dismissed these assertions as a sign that the opposition faces defeat and is unwilling to accept that fact.

Simai Mohammed, who was a member of the Constitution Review Commission and is running for MP of the Tunguu constituency in Zanzibar on a CCM ticket, said the ruling party was headed to victory as its top leadership had changed Tanzanian politics.

“The opposition needs a long term strategy to attract and build trust with rural Tanzania. Nyerereism and CCM domination is still visible and acknowledged among the people when it comes to the ballot.”

The failure of the Constitution review process has been seen as the key driver behind opposition unity.

A focus of opposition complaints has been the fact that a central provision of the draft crafted by the Constitution Review Commission headed by former prime minister Joseph Warioba, the creation of an independent electoral commission, has not been carried out.

But Dr Bana says the opposition’s concerns on this score are overblown.

“There are legitimate accusations that the legal framework that creates the commission is not impartial or even-handed. But the commissioners are people of unimpeachable integrity. Seven commissioners have been High Court judges. Both sides should learn to accept the outcome and take lessons from places like Nigeria.”

With no major opinion polling data released since the main candidates were selected, pundits remain divided over the likely outcome of the election, with the key question being whether Ukawa’s evident strength in urban areas and anecdotally among the youth will shake CCM’s dominance and extensive reach across the country.

DR. ABDUL KALAM [THE FORMER INDIAN NUCLEAR PHYSICIST] PERPETUAL LEGACY TO MANKIND...

Posted by: "Mohammed Sadikali" mohammedsadikali@hotmail.com
    Date: Thu Aug 20, 2015 5:26 am ((PDT))

The property left behind by Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam was estimated.
 
He owned 6 pants(2 DRDO uniforms)
4 shirts(2 DRDO uniforms) 3 suits (1 western, 2 Indian)
2500 books
1 flat (which he has donated)
1 Padmashri 1 Padmabhushan 1 Bharat Ratna 16 doctorates 1 website 1 twitter account 1 email id


He didn't have any TV, AC, car, jewellery, shares, land or bank balance. He had even donated the last 8 years' pension towards the development of his village.

He was a real patriot and true Indian.......
India will for ever be grateful to you, sir.
  

U.S.A. LAWSUIT: BIRTH CONTROL MIX- LED TO 'WRONGFUL LIFE'

CBS News August 12, 2015, 11:00 AM

Lawsuit: Birth control mix-up led to "wrongful life"

Yesenia Pacheco and her daughter, Sandra

KIRO-TV

SEATTLE -- A Seattle woman is suing a community clinic, claiming they made a big mistake when they gave her a flu shot instead of a birth control injection.

Yesenia Pacheco said she loves her 3-year-old daughter, Sandra, but she still believes the federal government needs to pay for her unwanted pregnancy, reports CBS affiliate KIRO-TV. A civil lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court against the government, given that the clinic is federally funded.

Pacheco had been receiving the Depo-Provera birth control injection every three months at the clinic. According to the suit, Depo-Provera claims the clinic got things mixed up in September, 2011 and she ended up pregnant a short time later.

The mother of three said abortion was never an option due to her personal beliefs.
After a difficult pregnancy, Sandra was born in 2012 with a brain malformation affecting motor and speech called unilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria.

Pacheco's attorneys said Sandra was born into a "wrongful life"..."as a direct and proximate result of Defendant's negligent acts and/or omissions to perform the medical care with due care."

The amount of compensation the lawyers are seeking has not been disclosed, but they said it is for medical bills and suffering.

"It's hard. I already have two girls. I didn't want anymore," Pacheco told KIRO.