| These 2 web photos from (above) Cotonou, West Africa and (top) far East Asia save me the trouble of writing further on why Tata Nono is not an environmental fiend, but the people's luxury. This article from one of Nigeria's oldest newspapers aptly captures the mood of the teeming masses of the huge African country and other parts of the 3rd World where the sleeky Tata Nono would adorn halfway through this year. "Keke Marwa", a skooter-car was introduced in the mid 1990s and ameliorated in no small way, the perennial transportation woes of that Nigerian overpopulated coastal city. Other motor manufacturers the world over can only but borrow a leaf from the Tata Nono makers in India and turn out motor vehicles affordable to the poor.. |
| Tata Nono - a no-no? World's Tiniest Passenger Car Raises Great Dust |
The challenge of finding who is to blame for
Kenya’s election crisis will be daunting,
mediator Oluyemi Adeniji has said.
He spoke as the African Union released its first
report on Kenya’s election dispute.
Mr Adeniji, a former Nigerian Foreign Affairs
minister Oluyemi Adeniji said that “part of the
problem that created the hold up (in resolving
the crisis) is the fact that a government had
already been put in place by President Kibaki.”
The former envoy, who replaced former UN
secretary-general Kofi Annan as mediator at the
peace talks, was addressing journalists after
presenting the mediators’ first report to the AU
Peace and Security Council.
However, he said it would be “daunting” to find
out who was responsible for the election crisis
that sparked weeks of violence in which over
1,200 people were killed.
Deeply flawed
Both President Kibaki and his main rival, Mr
Raila Odinga of ODM, claimed to have won the
December 27 presidential vote that
international observers said was deeply flawed.
While the two leaders have agreed to share
power, Kenya has only begun what is likely to
be a long and difficult process of addressing
problems worsened by the violence, including
simmering land disputes and ethnic resentment.
Parliament is preparing to vote on laws to
implement the power-sharing agreement signed
on February 28 under which Mr Odinga is to
become Prime Minister.
On Thursday, President Kibaki appointed a six-
member international panel to investigate the
elections.
On Tuesday, the top US diplomat on Africa,
Dr Jendayi Frazer, told the US Senate Foreign
Relations subcommittee on Africa that the US
is committing Sh1.7 billion ($25 million) to help
peace and reconciliation in Kenya, and to help
people displaced and affected by the violence
to restore their lives.
Kenya’s election crisis will be daunting,
mediator Oluyemi Adeniji has said.
He spoke as the African Union released its first
report on Kenya’s election dispute.
Mr Adeniji, a former Nigerian Foreign Affairs
minister Oluyemi Adeniji said that “part of the
problem that created the hold up (in resolving
the crisis) is the fact that a government had
already been put in place by President Kibaki.”
The former envoy, who replaced former UN
secretary-general Kofi Annan as mediator at the
peace talks, was addressing journalists after
presenting the mediators’ first report to the AU
Peace and Security Council.
However, he said it would be “daunting” to find
out who was responsible for the election crisis
that sparked weeks of violence in which over
1,200 people were killed.
Deeply flawed
Both President Kibaki and his main rival, Mr
Raila Odinga of ODM, claimed to have won the
December 27 presidential vote that
international observers said was deeply flawed.
While the two leaders have agreed to share
power, Kenya has only begun what is likely to
be a long and difficult process of addressing
problems worsened by the violence, including
simmering land disputes and ethnic resentment.
Parliament is preparing to vote on laws to
implement the power-sharing agreement signed
on February 28 under which Mr Odinga is to
become Prime Minister.
On Thursday, President Kibaki appointed a six-
member international panel to investigate the
elections.
On Tuesday, the top US diplomat on Africa,
Dr Jendayi Frazer, told the US Senate Foreign
Relations subcommittee on Africa that the US
is committing Sh1.7 billion ($25 million) to help
peace and reconciliation in Kenya, and to help
people displaced and affected by the violence
to restore their lives.
By SUZANNE GAMBOA,
Associated Press Writer Sat Feb
9, 7:47 AM ET
WASHINGTON - President
Bush is asking Congress to spend
money to help businesses root
out illegal workers but he did not
request additional funds to help
legal immigrants become
American citizens more quickly.
In his budget proposal issued this
week, Bush asked for $100
million to expand E-Verify, the
system employers use to check
whether they are hiring
documented workers. He didn't
ask Congress to allocate money
to chip away at millions of
citizenship and other immigration
applications that flooded the
government last summer, before
an increase in the agency's filing
fees.
Instead, Citizenship and
Immigration Services will rely on
$468 million in fees to pay for
reducing the backlog by 2010.
Those funds are a portion of the
total fees that came in with the
applications this summer.
Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff said the
summer's fee increases will give
the agency the money it needs to
get back on track.
"People always argue well you
ought to fund this, you ought to
fund that. That's great, but the
pie is only as big as it is and no
one ever comes up with this slice
they want to give back in return
for this," Chertoff said.
A total 7.7 million applications
for various immigration benefits
poured into Citizenship and
Immigration Services in the fiscal
year that ended Sept. 30, 2007.
That's 1.4 million more than the
previous fiscal year.
"The backlogs are pretty much
back where they were when they
started and the agency is back to
doing what it used to do, which is
robbing Peter to pay Paul. Right
now they are taking resources
from permanent residence to do
citizenship," said Crystal
Williams, associate director for
programs at the American
Immigration Lawyers Association.
The immigration agency increased
fees in July largely to raise about
$1.5 billion to pay for
modernizing computer
equipment, hiring and training
more workers, improving field
offices and other spending.
Becoming a citizen now costs
$595, up from $330. The price to
get a green card is $1,010, up
from $395. Applicants for both
pay another $80 each for digital
fingerprinting, a $10 increase.
Congress gave the immigration
agency $100 million a year over
five years through 2006 to reduce
the immigration backlogs. Agency
Director Emilio Gonzalez
announced in September 2006 the
backlog had fallen to about
139,0000 cases. About 1 million
applications in the backlog that
were incomplete, from people
still awaiting visas or whose FBI
name check was delayed, were
not counted.
The administration deserves
credit for securing the $500
million from Congress for the
backlog, said Doris Meissner,
former Immigration and
Naturalization Service
Commissioner under President
Clinton.
"They broke through the idea that
this should just be purely
financed by the applicant fees
themselves," said Meissner, a
senior fellow with Migration
Policy Institute, a Washington,
D.C.-based think tank. "But it
was finite."
Since 1988, the work of
Citizenship and Immigration
Services and its predecessor, the
Immigration and Naturalization
Service, has been largely paid for
by revenue from application fees.
Congress has provided money for
specific projects over the years,
but generally those have been
limited to a few years. Sometimes
fee money has been diverted for
things like detention centers.
The result has been an agency
constantly shifting resources to
respond to the latest crisis, critics
say.
"Every time the system breaks
down, they are incentivizing
people to say, 'Screw the system,
I'll just overstay my visa.'" said
James Jay Carifano, a research
fellow with the conservative
Heritage Foundation think tank.
Immigration officials say they
will be able to chip away at the
backlogs as 1,500 new workers
are hired and trained. Things
should be back where they were
before the application spike by
2010, the agency's spokeswoman
Chris Rhatigan said.
Williams thinks that's an
optimistic prediction. The 7.7
million applications the agency
received last year amount to
about three years of work, she
said.
Culled from Yahoo!News
Associated Press Writer Sat Feb
9, 7:47 AM ET
WASHINGTON - President
Bush is asking Congress to spend
money to help businesses root
out illegal workers but he did not
request additional funds to help
legal immigrants become
American citizens more quickly.
In his budget proposal issued this
week, Bush asked for $100
million to expand E-Verify, the
system employers use to check
whether they are hiring
documented workers. He didn't
ask Congress to allocate money
to chip away at millions of
citizenship and other immigration
applications that flooded the
government last summer, before
an increase in the agency's filing
fees.
Instead, Citizenship and
Immigration Services will rely on
$468 million in fees to pay for
reducing the backlog by 2010.
Those funds are a portion of the
total fees that came in with the
applications this summer.
Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff said the
summer's fee increases will give
the agency the money it needs to
get back on track.
"People always argue well you
ought to fund this, you ought to
fund that. That's great, but the
pie is only as big as it is and no
one ever comes up with this slice
they want to give back in return
for this," Chertoff said.
A total 7.7 million applications
for various immigration benefits
poured into Citizenship and
Immigration Services in the fiscal
year that ended Sept. 30, 2007.
That's 1.4 million more than the
previous fiscal year.
"The backlogs are pretty much
back where they were when they
started and the agency is back to
doing what it used to do, which is
robbing Peter to pay Paul. Right
now they are taking resources
from permanent residence to do
citizenship," said Crystal
Williams, associate director for
programs at the American
Immigration Lawyers Association.
The immigration agency increased
fees in July largely to raise about
$1.5 billion to pay for
modernizing computer
equipment, hiring and training
more workers, improving field
offices and other spending.
Becoming a citizen now costs
$595, up from $330. The price to
get a green card is $1,010, up
from $395. Applicants for both
pay another $80 each for digital
fingerprinting, a $10 increase.
Congress gave the immigration
agency $100 million a year over
five years through 2006 to reduce
the immigration backlogs. Agency
Director Emilio Gonzalez
announced in September 2006 the
backlog had fallen to about
139,0000 cases. About 1 million
applications in the backlog that
were incomplete, from people
still awaiting visas or whose FBI
name check was delayed, were
not counted.
The administration deserves
credit for securing the $500
million from Congress for the
backlog, said Doris Meissner,
former Immigration and
Naturalization Service
Commissioner under President
Clinton.
"They broke through the idea that
this should just be purely
financed by the applicant fees
themselves," said Meissner, a
senior fellow with Migration
Policy Institute, a Washington,
D.C.-based think tank. "But it
was finite."
Since 1988, the work of
Citizenship and Immigration
Services and its predecessor, the
Immigration and Naturalization
Service, has been largely paid for
by revenue from application fees.
Congress has provided money for
specific projects over the years,
but generally those have been
limited to a few years. Sometimes
fee money has been diverted for
things like detention centers.
The result has been an agency
constantly shifting resources to
respond to the latest crisis, critics
say.
"Every time the system breaks
down, they are incentivizing
people to say, 'Screw the system,
I'll just overstay my visa.'" said
James Jay Carifano, a research
fellow with the conservative
Heritage Foundation think tank.
Immigration officials say they
will be able to chip away at the
backlogs as 1,500 new workers
are hired and trained. Things
should be back where they were
before the application spike by
2010, the agency's spokeswoman
Chris Rhatigan said.
Williams thinks that's an
optimistic prediction. The 7.7
million applications the agency
received last year amount to
about three years of work, she
said.
Culled from Yahoo!News
| Citizenship on Hold for Many Immigrants |
| No mean dust is the recent introduction of the Tata Nono to the world automobile market; yet the smallest and cheapest passenger car with features that emphasize utility rather than luxury. Environmentalists raise alarm about perceived air pollution by the teeny van. Criticism has been mounting despite assurances by Tata Motors Chairman, Ratan Tata that the new introduction to Indian road is "a safe, affordable and all weather transport - a people's car, designed to meet all safety standards and emissions laws and accessible to all.".The Indian manufacturer whose business tentacles have spread to South Africa and elsewhere, adds that Tata said the car had passed emission standards and would average about 50 miles to the gallon. Environmentalists are not impressed but poor workers and low income earners in developing countries are euphoric. Tata represents the siting of a life-long dream for many in that bracket, and for good reason too. The problem with technology is that it has from the onset been fashioned in utter exclusion of the strapped. Yet the misadventures of technology, like every other poor judgement of the rich and powerful, becomes the worst mire for the poor. The humane intentions of early automobile inventors like Henry Ford of the T-Model fame, has been extirpated in the whirlwind of technological and arms race of last century. Hence while owning a car, especially in the 3rd World, has become the exclusive preserve of the rich, new cars, even in the rich West, can only be entrusted on the super rich and middle income earners who have a reputation debt repayment. Tata Nono is here to challenge the status quo. At the unveiling ceremony Tata said: "I observed families riding on two-wheelers - the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little baby. "It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family. Tata Motors' engineers and designers gave their all for about four years to realise this goal. Today, we indeed have a People's Car, which is affordable and yet built to meet safety requirements and emission norms, to be fuel efficient and low on emissions.” For sure Ratan Tata's antagonists are nowhere near his personal experiences narrated there. I have. I've been in Cotonou, Benin, where the absence of organized Public Transportation leaves the population at the mercy of bike operators who use unimaginable discretion to maximize their passenger intake. |
| Industrialist Ratan Tata. Read more about him in this interview |
| Kenya: Still Deep in the Woods - ENVOY |
| Kosovo: UDI - Good Omen for Southern Sudan? |
| Click on Map to Enlarge |
The United States recognized
the Balkan territory of Kosovo
promising the infant republic's
president that Washington "will
be your partner and your
friend." - CNN
More news about Kosovo
It is no more news that the
Balkan territory of Kosovo, a
mainly Albanian and
predominantly Moslem enclave
in Serbia has been the latest in
the decades old disintegration
of the former Yugoslavia with
its unilateral declaration of
independence from Serbia. The
support of Washington and her
allies has been resolute, with
only Spain and Greece giving a
dessenting voice in the West,
making the newly re-elected
Belgrade government of Boris
Tadic President of Serbia to
face a daunting choice of a
military option against the
breakaway republic, more
secession or a possible
collapse. Whatever happens in
the next few days will have a
far-reaching consequence not
only in the Balkans but in many
territories around the world
where self determination has
been touted as a way out of
years of oppression and
injustice from the government
at the center.
A great example is Southern
Sudan where informed
scholars and research fellows
already aver that self
determination for the embattled
people is the only way out of
the protracted war in the north
east African region.
Operate and listen to the player
below taken from my interview
with Professor Oystein
Rolandsen of the University of
Oslo, Norway.
Victor Nwora Aghadi
the Balkan territory of Kosovo
promising the infant republic's
president that Washington "will
be your partner and your
friend." - CNN
More news about Kosovo
It is no more news that the
Balkan territory of Kosovo, a
mainly Albanian and
predominantly Moslem enclave
in Serbia has been the latest in
the decades old disintegration
of the former Yugoslavia with
its unilateral declaration of
independence from Serbia. The
support of Washington and her
allies has been resolute, with
only Spain and Greece giving a
dessenting voice in the West,
making the newly re-elected
Belgrade government of Boris
Tadic President of Serbia to
face a daunting choice of a
military option against the
breakaway republic, more
secession or a possible
collapse. Whatever happens in
the next few days will have a
far-reaching consequence not
only in the Balkans but in many
territories around the world
where self determination has
been touted as a way out of
years of oppression and
injustice from the government
at the center.
A great example is Southern
Sudan where informed
scholars and research fellows
already aver that self
determination for the embattled
people is the only way out of
the protracted war in the north
east African region.
Operate and listen to the player
below taken from my interview
with Professor Oystein
Rolandsen of the University of
Oslo, Norway.
Victor Nwora Aghadi
Story by AGENCIES
Publication Date: 3/15/2008
Culled from Nationmedia.com
Publication Date: 3/15/2008
Culled from Nationmedia.com
Ambassador
Oluyemi Adeniji
(left) and below,
the 2 "gladiators"
in Kenya's
electoral imbroglio,
Mwai Kibaki and
Raul Odinga
Oluyemi Adeniji
(left) and below,
the 2 "gladiators"
in Kenya's
electoral imbroglio,
Mwai Kibaki and
Raul Odinga
| momentous GLOBAL IDEALISM SHIFT once touted as the Obama Phenomena! |
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