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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

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OBS: Egypt Protests-Bloodshed As Pro-Morsi Camps Cleared

Posted: 14 Aug 2013 06:16 AM PDT

Egypt

What is happening in Egypt is not only unfortunate, it is very pathetic and no one can even predict what will happen tomorrow…

It is getting more violent down there as days go by without any sign of peace and stability coming the way of the people of Egypt…

According to BBC;

Egyptian security forces have stormed two protest camps occupied by supporters of deposed president Mohammed Morsi in Cairo, with reports of many killed.

Witnesses said they saw at least 40 bodies, but the Muslim Brotherhood says hundreds died.

Armoured bulldozers moved deep into the main camp outside the eastern Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque.

Officials say the other protest camp, at Nahda Square, has also been cleared.

Graphic accounts of bloodshed emerged from the protest camps as reporters described wounded protesters being treated alongside the dead in makeshift field hospitals.

The 17-year-old daughter of leading Muslim Brotherhood figure Mohamed el-Beltagy was among the dead. Asmaa al-Beltagy was shot in the back and chest, her brother said.

There were also reports of violence in other parts of Egypt.

  • State news agency Mena says three churches were attacked in central Egypt, one in the city of Sohag with a large number of Coptic Christian residents
  • Security sources quoted by Reuters news agency reported clashes between security forces and Morsi supporters in Assiut and Minya cities
  • Morsi supporters are reported to have blocked roads in the northern city of Alexandria
  • Hundreds are said to have gathered outside the governor’s office in Aswan in the south

The interior ministry said a mopping-up operation in the streets surrounding Nahda Square was under way. Pro-Morsi activists were chased into the nearby zoo and Cairo University, Nile TV said.

It is still unclear how many casualties were caught up in the two Cairo operations. Figures differ widely and have been impossible to verify independently.

Western journalists said they saw at least 40 bodies in a makeshift morgue at the protest site at the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque.

The health ministry has issued an official death toll of 23 at both sit-ins, including six policemen.

Ikhwanonline, the website of the Muslim Brotherhood, which supports the protests, says more than 800 were killed.

The interior ministry denied any deaths were caused by its forces firing live ammunition.

“Security forces used only tear gas canisters to disperse the protesters though it was heavily fired at by armed elements from inside the two protest camps, causing the death of an officer and a conscript and the injury of four policemen and two conscripts,” the ministry said in a statement.

The government has meanwhile congratulated the security forces on their operation to clear the camps.

In a televised statement, a government spokesman praised their “self-restraint” and spoke of the “smaller number” of injuries among protesters.

The government would decisively confront attempts to attack state buildings and police stations, he said.

Supporters of Mr Morsi have been occupying Nahda Square and the Rabaa al-Adawiya site since he was ousted on 3 July. They want him reinstated.

Large plumes of smoke rose over parts of the city as the operation to clear the camps began, with tear gas canisters fired and helicopters hovering above.

Muslim Brotherhood TV called for people to send cars to the sit-ins to take casualties to hospital.

Several Muslim Brotherhood figures have been arrested, security sources said.

The protesters had been expecting the clearance operation, says BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen.

It is a heavy-handed operation and is a consequence of the current “winner takes all” climate, he adds, with both sides sticking to their positions and pushing as hard as they can.

Call for restraint

There has been strong international reaction to the storming of the camps.

The European Union called the reports of deaths and injuries “extremely worrying”.

A statement issued on behalf of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said: “We reiterate that violence won’t lead to any solution and we urge the Egyptian authorities to proceed with utmost restraint.”

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the result of the camp clearances as a massacre, accused other countries of paving the way for the violence by staying silent, and called for the UN and the Arab League to act immediately.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague also condemned the use of force.

More than 250 people have been killed in clashes with the security forces in the six weeks since Mr Morsi’s overthrow.

Speaking to the BBC on Monday, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy said the sit-ins could not continue “endlessly”.

He said the authorities had been trying to seek an agreement through dialogue.

“If the police force take their procedures, they will do that in accordance with the law by court order and in accordance to the basic norms on which these things are done.”



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Who Cares About Education And The Youth In Ghana? No One!

Posted: 14 Aug 2013 05:14 AM PDT

map of Ghana

Who really cares about the children (future leaders) and youth in Ghana? Kofi Annan mentioned the youth in the country should be allowed to lead; how well has the country equipped them to lead?  How has education been made comfortable and easy for the youth to become leaders?

There are two major ways to keep a society down: keep the majority poor and keep their children away from getting educated. The system knows that democracy and the freedom that comes with it is too risky to be left in the hands of people with knowledge, so the powers-that-be have ensured Ghanaians are as far from acquiring knowledge as they are from attaining prosperity. It is a double-edged sword of destruction.

Educated people ask too much questions and they are likely to be able to earn more. These are two combinations that make voting for anyone because of a pack of noodles and Ghc 20 very difficult. Educated people, even if poor are smart enough to know that voting for anyone because of petty gifts are momentary decisions that could have generational impacts.

Why then should a government have education at heart if it will empower people to ask questions? Keep them in poverty and entice them with gifts to always keep them on your side.  They just want the status quo to remain. Share the national cake 'up' and throw the crumbs down – let the rich be up and the poor be down; no middleclass.

Poverty is making people do the unthinkable…

According to recent reports, Ghanaian boys who are not even gays are listing themselves on gay expat sites seeking for men and these minors are seriously practicing prostitution for as low as 50 Gh pesewas. I don't think a child from a well-to-do family will be on the street for that amount of money.

A prostitute from a comfortable home will practice her trade around big men for big cash. Prostitution is not my problem because it is not only women hawking their services on the street that are prostitutes. My worry is the very young children involved because they've dropped out of school or the means of getting quality education is not there.

The Minister for Gender and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur when informed of the situation expressed dismay at the issue of child prostitution and promised to liaise with rights groups and stakeholders to tackle the issue. On how she was going to deal with the issue, she said although her ministry had a funding problem, she was confident education could be key in reducing the incidence of underage prostitution.

"In fact, there isn't any funding to address the issue of child prostitution, what we can only do is to continue with awareness creation with our development partners."

I thought promises were given before elections and actions taken after elections, so why should a minister be promising and also talking about funds not being there for a whole Gender and Social Protection ministry? I don't really know what is shocking her, the child prostitute or the amount of money involved? The powers that be claim the country is not broke so from her response, one can deduce that the woman has no clue as to what is going on or what to do.

Looking at the situation from the other way, it is high time Ghanaians have the number of children they can comfortably cater for. Days of having kids for future investments are long gone. No child asked to be born; they therefore should not come and suffer.

Having 6 children with 5 working as house helps in people's home who are either physically or sexually abused by their 'saviours' is not the way forward.

So why not educate and empower the masses to bring poverty down. Everything cannot be done in a stretch but steps should be taken to get the kids off the street and into class rooms. Poverty should be tackled and jailed, then social vices will die down.



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Did You Know That: Those With Higher Intelligence Are Less Likely To Believe In God?

Posted: 13 Aug 2013 12:25 PM PDT

PrayerI do not think we needed a research to confirm this…It is obvious that highly intelligent people will not fall for superstitious beliefs including the God theory…

Believing without evidence (faith) undermines the use of ones thinking faculty—-it is therefore not shocking that those with higher intelligence are less likely to believe in God (now I am sure you know where I belong)…

According to DailyMail;

A new study claims to have conclusively proved that the more intelligent a person is the less likely they are to believe in God.

Psychologists Miron Zuckerman and Jordan Silberman of the University of Rochester and Judith Hall of Northeastern University have published their review of 63 studies conducted between 1928 and 2012 in this months Personality and Social Psychology Review.

While they admit their findings are ‘not new’, the psychologists embarked on a systematic analysis of almost one hundred years of studies into the correlation between intelligence and religiosity and found that atheism is rife among clever people.

Defining intelligence as the ‘ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience,’ the three psychologists defined these skills as analytical, reasoned forms of intelligence.

On the other hand, religiosity was defined as a belief in the supernatural, offering gifts to this supernatural and performing rituals affirming their beliefs according to an article in Arstechnica.com.

Backing up their findings, Zuckerman, Silberman and Hall, examined the 1921 study by Lewis Terman, a psychologist at Stanford Univeristy who named his review, the Terman cohort of the gifted.

In the study, Terman recruited 1,500 children whose IQ exceeded 135 at at the age of 10.

This data was re-examined by Robin Sears at Columbia University in 1995 and by Michael McCullough at the University of Miami in 2005.

The overall conclusion of both these reviewers was that the children were less religious when compared to the general public.

However, what was remarkable about the data collected by Terman was that in spite of their atheism, 60 percent of the children he studied were brought up in ‘very strict’ religious homes.

The second great study that was examined by Zuckerman, Silberman and Hall was based on New York’s Hunter College Elementary School for the intellectually gifted.

Graduates with IQ’s over 140 aged between 38 and 50 were contacted and it was found that only 16 percent had derived any personal satisfaction from religion.

When countries were examined by Richard Lynn of the University of Ulster in 2009, the positive correlation between intelligence and atheism was a strong one.

While the data shows the positive correlation between intelligence and lack of religiosity, Zuckerman, Silbreman and Hall were more concerned with the reasons why.
One possibility the three researchers hit on was that intelligent people are less likely to conform and therefore more likely to resist relgious dogma.

Indeed, they discovered a correlation between the rise in atheism of intelligent people if they live in religious communities because they do not want to conform.

The most common explanation is that intelligent people do not like to accept any beliefs that cannot be tested according to an article in Arstechnica.com

The final reason they hit upon was that intelligence and its merits provides the function of religion to those who are blessed enough to have a high IQ.

Also, although the review encompasses all studies conducted from 1928 to 2012, it only does so for studies written in the English language.
And Zuckerman also warns that, despite there being thousands of participants overall, ranging among all ages, almost all of them belong to Western society.

More to the point, 87 percent of those involved in the studies were from the U.S. the UK and Canada – making the study mainly about Protestants, not Jews or Catholics.



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BIG BROTHER AFRICA SEASON 8: The Chase-Who Will Africa Choose To Join Beverly, Melvin, Elikem & Cleo In The Finale?

Posted: 13 Aug 2013 09:26 AM PDT

Big Brother Africa Season 8-The Chase1

With the final round of nominations on Big Brother: The Chase done and dusted on Monday, it's up to Africa to decide who of Angelo, Bimp and Dillish will be joining Melvin, Beverly, Elikem and Cleo in the glittering finale on 25 August.

Head of House Elikem picked up the most nominations (5), followed by Bimp with 4, Dillish with 2 and Cleo, Beverly and Angelo with 1 apiece – with Melvin not picking up a solitary nod. Elikem used his decisive 'save & replace' decision to send himself into the finale next Sunday, putting Angelo up for eviction in his place.

His decision ensured that Beverly, Melvin and Cleo are guaranteed a spot in the finale beside him. Beverly has gone through the entire show without facing eviction, while she and Melvin are also the only duo from the same country, left in The Chase.

Beverly kicked off nominations on Monday morning, naming Dillish and Cleo as her nomination choices, the latter because she sees her as competition.  Cleo returned the favour by nominating the Nigerian because she wanted to see how she'd handle potential nomination stress. Her second nomination went to Elikem because of his HoH status.

Dillish nominated Elikem for the same reason, before choosing Bimp because she sees him as competition. Bimp clearly felt the same way, because he nominated the Namibian for the same reason. His second nomination went to Elikem, not because he was Head of House, but because they don't get along.

Elikem clearly feels the same way as he set his sights on the Ethiopian. He named Angelo as his second nominee – with the South African promptly returning the favour. Angelo's second nomination went to Bimp.

Melvin nominated Bimp, saying "everyone is close to me. If I choose one person for possible eviction, It would have to be Bimp". His second nominee was Elikem, because he could save himself.(...)
Read the rest of BIG BROTHER AFRICA SEASON 8: The Chase-Who Will Africa Choose To Join Beverly, Melvin, Elikem & Cleo In The Finale? (232 words)



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