Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Profiling Florent Malouda.


One of the hottest soccer players for this World Cup Championship(both on the field and in my wild dreams... Ahem) happens to be Cayenne born Florent Malouda.
This french Guyanese born genius currently plays for Lyon, is one of France's best assets so far, weighs 161 and stands at 5'11...Mmmm sounds good to me.

David Morales in Toronto for pride festivities.



Dance music's famous remixer David Morales will be giving us a taste of his recipe. As the pride week end festivities get closer and closer, the famed DJ is expected to awe us once more at Sonic on June 24th and will be at Stereo bar in Montréal tomorrow June 21st.

The genius of remixes has worked with a variety of artists such as Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, Jamiroquai and so many more.

Ex justice minister to be tried in connection with Rwandan Genocide.



Agnes Ntamabyariro, 69, was captured in Zambia in 1997 and had been awaiting her trial on alleged links to the awfull masacres of over a million people in Rwanda during the 1994 Genocide. She's the highest ranking person of the former government to be tried in a local court as most of the cases are being tried in Arusha, in neighboring Tanzania.

As we commemorate World Refugee day, we should take the time to remember that millions of refugees fled the war torn country and even though some of them managed to come back as the country rebuilds itself, thousands are still scattered across the dense forest of eastern Kivu (modern day Democratic Republic of Congo) in horrible conditions. Images of suffering women and children, who often find themselves forcibly being enrolled in the rebelious armies surrounding them, make daily headlines but the international community has yet to act. Neighboring Burundi is currently living the same fate as its cousin to the north where horrific acts have been perpetrated over and over against innocent civilians for well over a decade now.

If it's not famine and diseases, women and children also have to worry about being gang raped either by the soldiers or the rebels. I remember watching an episode on Oprah where a young woman from Uganda recalled the horrors of being used as a human shield by one of the army officials. It was unbearable to watch so I had to imagine what she had been through.

Tonight on Anderson Cooper 360, Angelina Jolie is going to sit down with the famed broadcaster and talk about the plight of refugees in Africa and the rest of the World.
Hopefully enough people will tune in to watch.

Debt relief for world's poorest nations,most of which are in Africa



At the Gleneagles, Scotland summit last year, the most powerful nations agreed on 100% cancellation of the world's poorest countries; most of which are in sub-saharan Africa. On one condition though. The said countries had to complete a pre-requisite point which could be summarized as being able to maintain an economic stability and building the foundation for sustainable economic growth.
Here's a list of some of the countries which have successfully reached the completion point:
Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
------
“We have secured the total votes necessary to enact the Multilateral Debt Relief initiative,” said World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz. “Countries will now be able to put more resources into programs that directly help those who need it most - the poor who need better education, better health services and greater access to clean water, for example.”

Hijack attempt in South Africa.



A University of Cape Town student, Tinashe Rioga, 21 was apprehended after taking for hostage an air hostess with a syringe, BBC online reports. The young man demanded that the plane be flown to portuguese speaking Maputo, Mozambique.
Needless to say that with South Africa having one of the highest HIV infections in the world,and the fact that South African criminals often use HIV as a possible weapon, the man must have used that potentially infected syringe on that poor stewardess. Thank goodness that some passengers actually overpowered him and handed him to the police after landing back to Cape Town.
Just sad...