child-snatchers

Over the past few weeks, I have been engaged in an educational project with a community on the outskirts of Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

They may not have degree certificates or speak fluent English, but they know that children are a highly sought after commodity in today's Nigeria”

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

Although just 25 minutes' drive away from Apo, where Nigeria's lawmakers have their official residences, the road to Zhiyidna is barely passable, the entire community has no electricity, and none of the 100 to 150 keen children with whom I interact every week have ever set foot outside their village.

I was taken aback when one of the community leaders called me aside during one of my recent visits.
He explained that the parents were worried because I had been giving the children snacks.
They were suspicious that I may have mixed some sort of juju, or magic potion, into the food - perhaps to steal the children's destinies as they ate, thereby increasing my own chances of success in this world, or for some other unknown diabolical purpose.
According to him, they had heard that "someone like you" had turned up at another village under the guise of a developmental project, served the young people snacks in the process, only for all the children in the village to drop dead as soon as the philanthropist left.
Listening to him reminded me of a story my friend's father told, of when Prince Charles was born in 1948.
'Voodoo ploy' To celebrate the birth of the future king of England, the British colonial administrators in my friend's father's community in south-eastern Nigeria decided to give all the children in their school free milk.

The colonial administrators in Nigeria gave out free milk in some areas to celebrate Prince Charles' birth

Before long, pandemonium broke out all over the community: Mothers rushed from the markets; fathers rushed from the farms.
All headed to rescue their children from the school.
They had heard that the British had come up with a grand plan to poison every single Igbo child that day - by giving them something to drink.
Even more recently, in 2011, when the governor of the south-eastern Imo state decided to offer each child 100 naira ($0.65, £0.40) to encourage them to attend school, the rumour circulated that the monthly stipend was simply a voodoo ploy by governor Rochas Okorocha to siphon the children's destinies.
Nevertheless, I could not dismiss the Zhiyidna parents' concerns as mere superstition or alarmism.
They may not have degree certificates or speak fluent English, but they know that children are a highly sought after commodity in today's Nigeria.
One cannot be too careful.
Pregnant teenagers Last month, Imo's government revoked the licences of all homes for motherless babies, orphanages and foster homes in the state.

“Start Quote

Local newspapers sometimes report corpses of children abandoned in bushes or highways with their vital organs missing”

This followed the discovery of a number of "baby factories" in the state over the past few months.

In one case, 17 pregnant teenagers and 11 babies were rescued.
All the girls said they had been impregnated by the same man.
Babies "manufactured" under such circumstances can be used for a variety of purposes: From illegal adoption to child trafficking, or their body parts harvested for rituals.
Local newspapers sometimes report the discovery of corpses of children abandoned in bushes or highways with their vital organs missing.
Fresh placentas and aborted foetuses are also known to be up for sale.
The Imo state government has taken a step in the right direction.
Nigeria's children definitely need more protection.
Every children's home in the state will now be expected to go through a rigorous process of accreditation that will, hopefully, expose the wolves in sheep's clothing.
Thankfully, I passed my own brief accreditation process. And so, I am allowed to continue feeding the children in Zhiyidna.
I was able to convince the community leader during our long chat that, even though there are all sorts of wicked people perpetrating all manner of evil around Nigeria, I am not one of them.

 

US banking giant JP Morgan is set for a record $13bn (£8bn) fine.

US banking giant JP Morgan is set for a record $13bn (£8bn) fine to settle investigations into its mortgage-backed securities, US media reports have said.

A tentative deal is believed to have been reached in talks with senior US Justice Department officials.
The fine relates to the sale of securities based on home loans, which led to the near-collapse of the banking system in 2007.
If confirmed, it would be the biggest settlement ever paid by an US company.
Last month, JP Morgan was fined almost $1bn in the "London Whale" scandal, which arose from huge disastrous bets on the financial markets placed by former bank employee Bruno Iksil.
Risky assets The tentative deal to pay the $13bn fine to the Justice Department was reached during the talks on Friday, between JP Morgan lawyers with US Attorney General Eric Holder and his deputy Tony West, the Wall Street Journal said, citing officials familiar with the decision.

Crisis jargon buster

Mortgage-backed securities (MBS)

These are securities that pass through payments received on a large collection of mortgage debts. Banks repackage debts from a number of mortgages into MBS, which can be bought and traded by investors. By selling off their mortgages in the form of MBS, it frees the banks up to lend to more homeowners.

Glossary in full

The New York Times also reported that the investment bank was nearing the agreement. Neither the Justice Department nor the bank was available for comment.

But the reports said that while the fine would settle all civil claims, the US bank would still face possible federal criminal charges being pursued in California or individual criminal claims.
The $13bn sum is said to include $9bn in fines and a further $4bn in relief for struggling homeowners.
The crash In the run-up to the financial crisis, sophisticated financial products known as mortgage-backed securities were created by many investment banks.
These special bonds contained a mix of investments but at their heart were supposed to be risk-free home loans, the BBC's business correspondent Joe Lynam reports.
When the housing bubble burst, the value of these assets fell sharply and the credit markets seized up. The balance sheets of many US and European banks, including those in the UK, became toxic and they had to be bailed out by their governments.
What JP Morgan is alleged to have done was sell the mortgage-backed assets knowing full well that many of the home loans were in fact very risky.
Some of the problems relate to mortgage bank Washington Mutual and investment bank Bear Stearns, two failing firms that JPMorgan took over in 2008.
The mortgage-backed assets played a central role in the near collapse of the banking system when banks realised in 2007 that many of their assets were worth a fraction of their official book value.
JP Morgan had initially aimed to persuade Justice Department officials to drop the criminal investigation but the attorney general ruled that out, reports said.
The bank is not alone in facing inquiries into past practice. In August, US government officials filed two lawsuits against Bank of America relating to mortgage-backed securities. Bank of America denied civil fraud in failing to disclose risks and misleading investors.
Legal woes JP Morgan has found itself overwhelmed by mounting legal troubles lately.
Once the darling of Washington and Wall Street, it reported a rare quarterly earnings loss last week, mostly due to legal costs totalling $9.2bn.
The bank lost $380m during the quarter, compared with a profit of $5.7bn in the same period last year.
JP Morgan says it has set aside a fund of $23bn to deal with mounting legal costs.

A NIGERIAN HOUSE STAGED HER OWN KIDNAP

                           A NIGERIAN  HOUSE STAGED HER OWN KIDNAP

A housewife has been arrested by the Enugu State Police for planning & staging her own kidnap, then demanding the sum of N200, 000 from her husband Marcus Chukwu as ransom.

Her partner, a commercial motorcyclist who was also connected in the staging her kidnap Chikwe Tochukwu has also been arrested.
It was gathered that the husband Marcus, a native of Agbogugu in Awgu local Government Area of Enugu State, had received a call from his wife, Nancy Chukwu, claiming that she had been kidnapped by unknown gunmen and that her kidnappers were demanding the sum of two hundred thousand naira.
Marcus was thereby given an account number where the said ransom is to be paid, rather than pay the ransom he reported the matter to the anti-kidnap unit of the police.
The Enugu State DSP, Ebere Amaraizu, who confirmed stated that investigations conducted revealed that Tochukwu of Amakwe Okeremiri Aboh Mbaise in Imo state, residing at Agbogugu was the brain behind the
stage managed kidnap, which was aimed at extorting the woman’s husband.
Tochukwu who confessed to the police said he is an okada rider that usually carries the woman, Nancy home anytime she is returning from market, adding that Nancy lured her into the crime.
He went on to confess that while he was together with Nancy, sounded like a kidnapper on phone who was already holding Nancy under captivity, and demanded that the sum of two hundred thousand naira be paid as a ransom to the account number provided, which he also claimed belonged to his friend Chikwado.
Nancy also confessed to the crime, saying she never knew what came over her to have acted in such manner.

 

 

 

Is Drake the first hip hop star to make weakness cool?

Photo: Rex Features

 

 

 

 

 

Hip hop has a tough, aggressive image - but now Drake is selling millions of records that reveal a softer side. Is rap changing forever? Greg Kot investigates.

On his 2011 album, Take Care, Drake felt sufficiently put-upon to issue a disclaimer: “Showing emotion don’t ever mean I’m a pussy,” he rapped. It was a telling moment on what turned out to be a big album, a multi-million-seller that affirmed Toronto-born Aubrey Drake Graham’s status as a hip hop star.
Now, with Nothing Was the Same as the number one album in the US with first-week sales of more than 600,000, Drake is again doing what once seemed impossible in mainstream hiphop: he’s made vulnerability cool.
That’s no small achievement in a genre where testosterone is often a must, swagger a given, toughness a requirement. For decades, vulnerability was often interpreted as weakness. The notion that an MC could have feelings was often reason enough to put the rapper’s manhood in question. Hip hop itself was built on wordplay defined not just by skill but by one-upmanship, the idea that he who talked the toughest and verbally smoked his rivals was the best MC. In the ghettos from where hip hop rose, putting up anything less than a tough-as-nails exterior could be an invitation to a beatdown or worse. No wonder rappers needed to come across as invulnerable, immune to sentimentality. In the early days, rappers were poet-warriors whose words, to paraphrase Public Enemy’s Chuck D, had the impact of bullets.
Tough love?
There were exceptions. LL Cool J had a hit single in 1987 with what was widely viewed as the first hip hop ballad, I Need Love. In an era when MCs such as Run-DMC. and Rakim came hard or not at all, the suave LL dared to play the seductive ladies man. But it was no coincidence that he also kept swinging the iron, flexing on the cover of the aptly-named album Mama Said Knock You Out a few years later.
Other hip hop groups enjoyed brief flurries of success by taking a less aggressive tack during the height of the gangsta-rap era. De La Soul delivered Daisy Age psychedelia and PM Dawn, melodic spirituality. Digable Planets played it jazzy and whimsical and Arrested Development brought a gentle earnestness. The Fugees scored a massive 1995 hit with a cover of Roberta Flack’s quintessentially sensitive 1970s R&B ballad, Killing Me Softly.
More soul-searching voices emerged by the late ‘90s, in response to what was seen as the materialism of hip hop’s Puff Daddy phase. Underground rappers such as Atmosphere and the Stan-era Eminem matched the introspective ‘emo’ punks of indie rock. OutKast reached No. 1 on the pop charts in 2001 with Ms. Jackson, in which Andre 3000 offers a contrite apology to the mother of his ex-lover.

Ethiopia 1-2 Nigeria

Nigeria survived a scare in Addis Ababa as the African champions rallied to beat Ethiopia 2-1 in the opening leg of their World Cup play-off.

The hosts were the superior team for the first hour and led after 56 minutes as Nigerian goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama misjudged a cross from Behailu Assefa.
Nigeria, who were not at their best, equalised through Emmanuel Emenike's ferocious drive after 67 minutes.
Emenike then won and scored a penalty late on to seal a barely-deserved win.

African play-offs, first legs

Saturday

• Burkina Faso 3-2 Algeria
• Ivory Coast 3-1 Senegal

Sunday

• Ethiopia 1-2 Nigeria
• Tunisia v Cameroon

Tuesday

• Ghana v Egypt

The match was in the 90th minute when Aynalem Hailu needlessly brought the Nigerian down, so allowing the Turkey-based striker to coolly slot home a decisive goal.

"Ethiopia's play scared us in the first half but we showed why we are the African champions in the second half - that's what makes the difference," assistant coach Daniel Amokachi told BBC Sport.
Bidding to qualify for their fifth World Cup in six attempts, Stephen Keshi's side grew stronger as the game wore on and could have led after 77 minutes as Ahmed Musa thumped a close-range strike against the inside of the post.
Defeat was cruel on Ethiopia coach Sewnet Bishaw, whose impressed with their technical play but who lacked a cutting edge in the final third.
Trying to become the first East African nation to appear at a World Cup, the Walya Antelopes thought they had opened the scoring after 24 minutes through Saladin Said.
The forward controlled a long diagonal ball well and managed to beat Enyeama only to see Gofrey Oboabona clear off the line, with many inside a packed Addis Ababa Stadium - Said included - believing a goal had been scored.
So there was a hint of irony when Ethiopia made the breakthrough in similar style as Enyeama was slow to react to a left-wing cross from Assefa, with the Nigerian badly positioned as he caught the ball behind the line.
There was a split second of hesitation before the home fans realised a goal had been scored, prompting an outpouring of celebration from the hordes of colourful Ethiopian supporters.
The visitors, for whom Nnamdi Oduamadi had missed a good chance in the first half, had an early opportunity to draw level only for some smart goalkeeping from Jemal Tassew to deny Victor Moses.
The Super Eagles did not have to wait long for their equaliser however as Emenike took possession 30 yards out before drifting forward and rifling home a blistering strike.
The goal took the wind out of the hosts' sails and they were fortunate to survive with their goal intact when Musa got behind the Ethiopian defence and hit the post with Tassew beaten.
Ethiopia substitute Addis Hintsa missed two presentable chances in the dying minutes, as the match looked set to end in a draw.
While that may have been a fairer reflection on the game, Emenike had other ideas, ploughing into the box and forcing a rash challenge from Hailu who clearly tugged the Nigerian's arm.
Emenike's second goal of the game enabled the visitors to stage the perfect smash-and-grab and ensure that Nigeria are favourites to progress to their second straight World Cup when the two sides meet again in Calabar on 16 November.

India temple stample in madhya oradesh kill 89

India temple stampede in Madhya Pradesh 'kills 89'

Eyewitness Atul Chaudhary: "We saw people jumping into the river"

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

• Timeline: Deadliest stampedes

Some 89 pilgrims, mostly women and children, have been killed in a stampede at a Hindu festival in central India, local officials have said.

Many were crushed after panic broke out on a bridge near the Ratangarh temple in Madhya Pradesh state. Others died when they jumped from the bridge.
Officials said the stampede may have been sparked by a rumour that the bridge was about to collapse.
Hundreds of thousands had gathered near the town of Datia for the festival.
Local devotee Atul Chaudhary, who survived the crush, told BBC Hindi there had been a couple of thousand people on the bridge.
He heard screams, and people began rushing to get off the bridge.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Anbarasan Ethirajan BBC News

Deadly stampedes are common during India's often chaotic religious festivals. Most of the incidents are blamed on poor crowd-control techniques and planning by the authorities.
Indian religious festivals often attract hundreds of thousands of people, sometimes even millions as in the case of the Kumbh Mela festival in Uttar Pradesh. It's a challenge for the authorities to build tents, erect makeshift bridges, and install sanitation facilities. Often there are few first aid or medical facilities.
The Indian bureaucracy and security forces are ill-equipped and too under-staffed to manage such mega-events. Pilgrims are sometimes in a hurry to finish their prayers and get home early. On occasion, rumours of an accident or a bridge collapse have also triggered stampedes. Repeated accidents of this kind only show that no lessons have been learnt.

"Several people could be seen flattened to the ground in the midst of the melee," he said.

"Some of the youngsters panicked and jumped into the swollen river.
"I and my friends were close to the exit point and along with several others ran for safety. Scores of others were not so lucky."
The narrow bridge is about 500m long, and had only recently been rebuilt following another stampede in 2007.
Madhya Pradesh health minister Narottam Mishra said 89 people were confirmed to have died.
"The cause of the stampede is a matter of judicial inquiry. Information from locals suggests that rumours of the bridge giving way could have led to the stampede," he said.
Other reports suggested that police sparked panic by using batons to control the crowd.
Officials said the dead included 42 women, 30 children and 17 men.
Emergency crews and specialist divers were still searching the river for bodies.

Local official Sanket Bhondve said the immediate priority was to provide relief to those injured.
The accident happened at about 09:00 (03:30 GMT), but information was slow to emerge because the temple is in a remote area with erratic mobile-phone coverage.
Hindu festivals in India are notorious for deadly stampedes.
In the past year, dozens have died in three similar tragedies.
In 2011 more than 100 died at a festival in the southern state of Kerala.
Inside Jodhpur's Mehrangarh Fort, more than 220 people were killed in 2008 in a stampede at the Chamunda Devi Hindu temple.

fath

 faith is the head chemist of the mind . when faith is blended with the vibration of thought, the subconscious mind instantly picks up the vibration, translate it into its spiritual equivalent, and transmit it to infinite intelligence, as in the case of prayer

• faith is the starting point of accumulation of riches
• faith is the eternal  elixir which gives life, the infinite
• faith is the basis of all miracles and mysteries that cannot be analyzed by the rules of science.
• faith is the element the chemical which mixed with with prayer, gives one direct communication with infinite intelligence.
• faith is the element that transform the ordinary vibration of thought, created by the finite mind of man into the spiritual equivalent.
• faith is the only agency through which the cosmic force of infinite intelligence can be harness and use.
• faith is a  state of mind, and that is may be induced by self-suggestion.

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