Finland Charges Rwanda Suspect with Genocide

Francois Bazaramba, 58, has been in detention in Finland since April 2007 but the government said in February it would not extradite him because it feared he would not get a fair trial in Rwanda.

State Prosecutor Raija Toiviainen said she had enough evidence to bring the charges to the court, with about 100 witnesses heard.

The maximum sentence would be a life sentence if he is found guilty. Toiviainen said Bazaramba was also charged with 15 counts of murder.

“It is obvious according to the pre-trial investigation that the man has committed a crime of genocide in the municipality of Nyakizu in April and May 1994 with intent to destroy the Rwandan Tutsis partly or totally,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement.

Rwanda accuses Bazaramba of orchestrating the murder of 5,000 people in the country in 1994. A total of about 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the masscares carried out by Hutu militias.

Local media said Bazaramba arrived in Finland in 2003 and sought asylum.

Bazaramba’s lawyer, Ville Hoikkala, said his client was not in a position where he could have led any killings.

“He is not guilty, and we have evidence that some of the witnesses heard in Rwanda were tortured,” Hoikkala said.

A spokeswoman for the district court in Porvoo, some 50 km (30 miles) from Helsinki, said the goal was for pre-trial hearings to start in the next few weeks and a trial to begin in the autumn. (Reuters)

Women Elected to Kuwait Parliament

For the first time women has been voted in Kuwait as members of parliament. Four women who contested the election were voted into parliament . The four, liberal learning candidates had been students at the American University.

16 women were among the 210 persons who contested the parliamentary elections. This is a sign of relief as the women in Kuwait can now participate in nation building and represents the country in positions of leadership.

This is a break through the country´s political glass ceiling since women were given the rights to vote and run for office in 2005. Their victories were probably aided by voter frustration with the political turmoil and religious extremism of recent parliaments.

This has been a major shift from the islamic conservative ideas against women. The world hopes that the Talibans will one day follow these footsteps.

Onyango Okeyo.

Legislation:Gay people can now adopt a child

The Åland Parliament last friday passed a legislation which will allow the gay people(homosexuals and lesbian) the privilege to adopt a child.

According to the votes casted on friday by members of Åland parliament, 108 were the total votes casted inwhich 29 voted against the legislation, 61 voted for the legislation and the rest voted blank.

Notable, according to Ålandtidning, Parliament majority leader Elisabeth Naucle’r voted for the legislation.

Åland will now join countries like Sweden, Holland and Belgium who had allowed this practise earlier.

Onyango Okeyo

From Food to Health Care, the Poor Pay More

The economics of poverty are complicated, the Habari Newsletter reports, but it boils down to this: “The poorer you are, the more things cost.” The poor spend more in time, money, hassle, and exhaustion than do the middle class or wealthy on everything from a loaf of bread to a bank loan.

Lacking transportation, the poor often shop for groceries at corner stores where a gallon of milk can cost a dollar more. Hours that could be spent working are whiled away at the laundromat.

Lacking a bank account, many of the nation’s worlds poor, living below the poverty line depend on fee-heavy check-cashing services and “payday” loans that carry an effective annual percentage rate of more than 800%.

With no credit and no down payment, the poor can’t make the important leap from renting to homeownership unless, of course, they can secure a sub prime loan.

The rich have direct deposit for their paychecks. The poor have check-cashing and payday loan joints, which cost time and money. Payday advance companies say they are providing an essential service to people who most need them. Their critics say they are preying on people who are the most “economically vulnerable.”

You have to be rich to be poor. That’s what some people who have never lived below the poverty line don’t understand. Put it another way: The poorer you are, the more things cost. More in money, time, hassle, exhaustion, menace. This is a fact of life that reality television and magazines don’t often explain.

So we’ll explain it here. Consider this a primer on the economics of poverty.

Onyango Okeyo

The top five cancer-causing foods are:

1. Hot dogs

Because they are high in nitrates, the Cancer Prevention Coalition advises that children eat no more than 12 hot dogs a month. If you can’t live without hot dogs, buy those made without sodium nitrate.

2. Processed meats and bacon

Also high in the same sodium nitrates found in hot dogs, bacon, and other processed meats raise the risk of heart disease .The saturated fat in bacon also contributes to cancer.

3. Doughnuts

Doughnuts are cancer-causing double trouble. First, they are made with white flour, sugar, and hydrogenated oils then fried at high temperatures. Doughnuts, may be the worst food you can possibly eat to raise your risk of cancer.

4 French fries

Like doughnuts, French fries are made with hydrogenated oils and then fried at high temperatures. They also contain cancer- causing acryl amides which occur during the frying process. They should be called cancer fries, not French fries.

5. Chips, crackers, and cookies

All are usually made with white flour and sugar. Even the ones whose labels claim to be free of trans-fats generally contain small amounts of trans-fats.

BRAIN DAMAGING HABITS

1. No Breakfast

People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level.
This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.

2. Overeating
It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

3. Smoking
It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.

4. High Sugar consumption
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

5. Air Pollution
The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

6. Sleep Deprivation
Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.

7. Head covered while sleeping
Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.

8. Working your brain during illness
Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.

9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts
Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.

10. Talking Rarely
Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain

The main causes of liver damage are:

1. Sleeping too late and waking up too late are main cause.
2. Not urinating in the morning.
3. Too much eating.
4. Skipping breakfast.
5. Consuming too much medication.
6. Consuming too much preservatives, additives, food coloring, and artificial sweetener.
7. Consuming unhealthy cooking oil. As much as possible reduce cooking oil use when frying, which includes even the best cooking oils like olive oil. Do not consume fried foods when you are tired, except if the body is very fit.
8. Consuming raw (overly done) foods also add to the burden of liver.
Veggies should b eaten raw or cooked 3-5 parts. Fried veggies should be finished in one sitting, do not store.

We should prevent this without necessarily spending more. We just have to adopt a good daily lifestyle and eating habits. Maintaining good eating habits and time condition are very important for our bodies to absorb and get rid of unnecessary chemicals according to ’schedule.’

DO TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH

By Morris Okumu.

Elisabeth Naucle’r Receives Presidential Medal

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has Honored Elisabeth Naucle’r, Ålands Parliament leader with a presidential Medal for her ealier work and service in France.

The ceremony was presided by the French Ambassador to Finland Francoise Bourolleau.

The ceremony took place in Helsinki and was attended by the representatives from Finnish Parliament and Elisabeth Naucle’rs family.

Onyango Okeyo

Swedish Integration Minister Visits Åland

Nyamko Sabuni, the Swedish minister for Integration visit to Åland on the 15^th April 2009 was more than projected by the local media which only stressed and portrayed that the minister was only in town for a meeting with (Lantrådet) Viveka Eriksson and ( Landskapets chef för jäställdhetsfrågor) Vivan Nikula.

Nyamko Sabuni arrived as per scheduled and was met and given a hearty welcome by her host before being invited to visit two schools in the Island and meet the students.

After the meetings the minister was invited to a luncheon which was hosted in her honor at the prestigious Nautical Hotel. Thereafter, there was a brief press conference and interaction with the journalists.

Noticeable on the program host agenda, was the opportunity to discuss relevant issues concerning Integration , its wider complications in a society like Åland and whether there is a legislation in the Island which enhance smooth integration.

ATM Notice

Attention:

It has come to our notice at Habari1 blog and at Habari Newsletter desk that on sunday the 19^th April 2009 between 3.00am to 6.00am in the morning, all the banking automatic machines will be shut down to enable the updating of the data system.

The announcement was made by Bank Automatic oy technical branch of Finland.

kenyan Writer Shailja Patel To Perform In Uppsala

Kenyan Writer Shailja Patel To Perform In Uppsala

Shailja Patel, Nordic Africa Institute Guest Writer 2009, will appear in the series Writers’ Africa at an event in the Institute library, Kungsgatan 38, Uppsala, on Thursday 23 April from 6.00 to 8.00 p.m.

SHAILJA PATEL

Shailja Patel will discuss Poetry, Performance and Resistance in a Kenyan and African context with Mai Palmberg, co-ordinator of the Cultural Images in and of Africa research project at NAI.

Shailja Patel is a Kenyan poet, playwright, spoken word artist and political activist. Shailja Patel is also the founder of a Direct Action Training Program in Kenya to empower grassroots activists with skills for political engagement.

Her central work, performed as a one-woman show, is known as Migritude. The name, which she has composed as a play on the words ‘negritude’ and ‘migrant attitude’, “asserts the dignity of the outsider status, and captures the unique political and cultural space occupied by migrants who refuse to choose between identities of origin and identities of assimilation, which channel difference as a source of power rather than conceal or erase it”.

‘Migritude’ has already found its way into the discourse on Africa and the world. The first part of Migritude was premiered in 2006 in the San Fransisco Bay Area. It is conceived as a cycle in four parts, and draws on the artist’s spiritual and cultural heritage as a third-generation East African of Indian Gujarati descent.

Read more about Shailja Patel on the NAI web site

Swahili Book Launch At ABF

“Swahili is a World language” spoken by more than 100 million people.

A meeting will take place at The book Swahili for Swedes The book “Swahili for Swedes” ABF-huset in Stockholm on Tuesday April 28 where the book “Swahili for Swedes” will be presented.

The event begins at 18.00 and the address is Sveavägen 41 (Tube Rådmansgatan).

Program:

* Swahili’s position in East Africa: Representatives from the Kenyan and Tanzanian embassies

* Swahili – about the language and its usage: The authors give examples from the book

* Travel Agents and friendship association’s involved with information Organizers: ABF Stockholm Hjalmarson & Högberg Bokförlag Watatu

More information about the book and the authors can be found here: www.watatu.se/swahili

The book will be available for sale during the meeting. For larger quantities, please contact the publisher for price information, tel 08-22 67 20, info@hohforlag.se.

Karibuni!