Headline News

21, October 2019

Southern Cameroons Conflict: Priest Kidnapped in Mamfe ⁰

More than 24 hours after a catholic priest went missing in the diocese of Mamfe in the South West Region, nothing has been heard of him.

Armed groups are very active in the area but non has claimed responsibility for his disappearance.

According to some Ambazonia leaders, a search is now on for what they claim is a proxy group that kidnapped Rev. Father Felix Ezeaka Sunday of Nigerian nationality, Sunday morning at Mbakang.

His whereabout has since remained unknown. Amba leaders allege that the said proxy group that took him has been operating in the area for about two months.

News of the abduction is still spreading through the area with populations anxious to get him freed.
No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction.

But this latest kidnap comes in a long line of abductions, torture and degrading treatments inflicted on priests, including bishops and humanitarian workers by armed groups.

Yet, prior to his abduction, there had been rumours that Amba Boys were after him having said “something” against their favour.

The priest who has been described by concerned parishioners reportedly loved by his community and especially the IDPs he served.

He returned from holidays in neighbouring Nigeria only to go missing the next day.

Father Felix Ezeaka has been Parish Priest of Afab, a Parish in Central Ejagham, Manyu Division.

“Let the world know what we suffer from the hands of the Military and the Amba fighters for speaking the Truth and standing by it!!!” a trusted source in the Mamfe Dioceses told The Voice newspaper.

Rev. Fr. Felix Ezeaka Sunday belongs to the diocese of Awka – Nigeria. He was ordained on June 26 2014, and has been working in Cameroon for over 2 years.

Source: The Voice

21, October 2019

Biya’s plan of francophonising Southern Cameroons won’t materialize ⁰

The Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima says the successful launch of the Amba Bonds Project will stifle French Cameroun’s plan of francophonising the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The exiled leader made the comments in Holland late on Sunday observing that the “plans to give Ambazonian the so-called special status will fail, and Southern Cameroonians will never allow French Cameroun occupation forces to implement Biya’s plots and change the character of British Southern Cameroons.”

The top Ambazanian official also emphasized the necessity for every Southern Cameroonian to stick to the wise and courageous Amba Bonds Project to confront French Cameroun atrocities in Ambazonia which he described as the core of the Southern Cameroons conflict.

Comrade Dabney Yerima further pointed out that despite all the challenges within the Ambazonia Interim Government, Southern Cameroonians were heading toward victory. He saluted all Southern Cameroons Restoration forces for standing in the face of French Cameroun occupation.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in Holland

21, October 2019

Pride of Africa: Stable Botswana to vote in rare cliffhanger ⁰

Botswana votes on Wednesday in the most closely fought general election in the history of the southern African country, long known as one of the continent’s most stable democracies.

Former president Ian Khama has shaken up the country’s traditionally calm politics by dramatically renouncing his hand-picked successor Mokgweetsi Masisi.

Khama left the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) in May, accusing President Masisi — who had been his deputy until last year — of autocracy.

The bitter feud has threatened to fracture the BDP, which has governed the diamond-rich country since it gained independence from Britain in 1966.

The split came after the ruling party saw its share of the vote fall below 50 percent for the first time in the last elections in 2014.

It has faced an increasing challenge from a coalition of opposition parties, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), which has added another group to its ranks since the last election.

“It’s the most contested election we have seen, and genuinely the outcome is in doubt to some extent,” said Botswana economic analyst Keith Jefferies.

“It’s possible that the BDP could be unseated.”

The UDC has received a boost from an unlikely source: Khama.

The opposition group was his fiercest critic when he was president, but Khama has urged voters in many regions to cast their ballots for the UDC in a bid to oust Masisi and the BDP.

Khama’s father co-founded the BDP and served as the country’s first president. He retains plenty of influence, particularly in the central region — a BDP stronghold — where he is a traditional chief.

– Khama ‘the wild card’ –

The rift between the president and his predecessor started last year, when Khama resigned near the end of his constitutional limit of two five-year terms.

Khama handed the reins to Masisi in April 2018, 18 months ahead of the next election, as part of the BDP’s carefully crafted process for transferring power.

But Masisi quickly started reversing several of Khama’s key policies, including lifting his ban on elephant trophy hunting, infuriating his predecessor.

Peter Fabricius, an analyst at the Pretoria-based think tank Institute of Security Studies, said “Khama is the wild card”.

“This is quite a close election and it could go either way,” he added.

Masisi told AFP that Khama’s policies had hurt the ruling party.

The BDP is “definitely going to perform far better” without Khama, Masisi said, predicting an “overwhelming victory, landslide”.

UDC leader Duma Boko was also confident, telling AFP: “I think we will win this election and we should”.

Voter Alice said: “It’s time for a new government, enough of the BDP”.

“Things are not right in our government… the corruption is just too much,” she told AFP, asking to be identified only by her first name to protect her job.

– ‘We are never going to fight’ –

The unprecedented political drama has raised fears that Khama’s defection could unsettle Botswana after more than five decades of peace and stability.

But Masisi ruled out any such scenario, urging everyone to “accept the results” of the vote.

“I have already accepted the results whatever might come,” he told AFP.

“Botswana is never going to be in crisis if one person wins or the other doesn’t win, there will be another opportunity.”

“We are never going to fight,” Masisi said, adding that stability is in the DNA of Botswana’s people.

But past elections have never been this close. If the opposition wins, the country’s democratic credentials and reputation for good governance will face a new test — a peaceful transfer of power.

Analysts said a BDP loss would be unlikely to send people into the streets. However, they did warn that an unexpected landslide for the ruling party could spark opposition protests claiming the election was rigged.

Duma said at the weekend that the vote would not be free and fair because of unbalanced media coverage by the public broadcaster.

Nearly half of Botswana’s 2.2 million people are expected to cast their ballots in the parliamentary and local elections.

The BDP, UDC and two smaller parties will vie for 57 parliamentary seats. The party with the most seats chooses the president.

Thanks to Botswana’s diamond-spurred wealth it is ranked as an upper-middle-income country, but it has one of the world’s highest rates of income inequality.

Source: AFP

21, October 2019

Canada elects new parliament after tight race ⁰

Canadians are electing a new Parliament on Monday after a tight election campaign that has raised the threat of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau being knocked from power after just one term.

The 47-year-old Trudeau channelled the star power of his father, the liberal icon and late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, when he won in 2015 but a combination of scandal and high expectations have damaged his prospects.

The Liberals and Tories went into the home stretch in a dead heat, each with about 31-32 percent support after 40 days of mudslinging.

Pollsters are predicting a minority government will result from Monday’s vote – led either by the Liberals or the Conservatives – as the smaller New Democratic Party (NDP), Green Party and Bloc Québécois have continued to chip away at the frontrunners’ leads.

Not in 84 years has a first-term Canadian prime minister with a parliamentary majority lost a bid for re-election.ADVERTISING

Trudeau reasserted liberalism in 2015 after almost 10 years of Conservative Party government in Canada, but he is one of the few remaining progressive leaders in the world. He has been viewed as a beacon for liberals south of the border in the Donald Trump era, even appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine under the headline “Why Can’t He Be Our President?”

Barack Obama✔@BarackObama

I was proud to work with Justin Trudeau as President. He’s a hard-working, effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change. The world needs his progressive leadership now, and I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term.

Perhaps sensing Trudeau is in trouble, Barack Obama last week made an unprecedented endorsement by a former US president in urging Canadians to re-elect Trudeau, calling him an “effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change”.

“The world needs his progressive leadership now,” Obama tweeted Wednesday.

Lapses

Plagued by a blackface scandal and accused of ethics lapses in the handling of the bribery prosecution of an engineering giant, Trudeau has seen his star dim, his judgment questioned and his personal popularity slip over the past year.

He was hurt by the scandal that erupted earlier this year when his former attorney general said he pressured her to halt the prosecution of a Quebec company. Trudeau has said he was standing up for jobs, but the damage gave a boost to the Conservative Party led by Andrew Scheer.

Justin Trudeau✔@JustinTrudeau

A little rain can’t stop us! Port Moody’s ready to #ChooseForward.

No party is expected to get a majority of Parliament’s 338 seats, so a shaky alliance may be needed to pass legislation.

If it is the Conservatives who win the most seats – but not a majority – they will probably try to form a government with the backing of Quebec’s separatist Bloc Québécois. In contrast, Trudeau’s Liberals would likely rely on the NDP to stay in power.

Attack machine

Scheer, meanwhile, has struggled to convince voters to look past his dull, minivan-driving dad persona and the party’s minimalist platform to give the rookie leader a chance to govern.

Throughout the campaign, the devout Catholic father-of-five faced criticism for padding his resume and over his personal opposition to abortion and gay marriage.

A career politician who served as Canada’s youngest Speaker of the House of Commons, Scheer is described by those in his own party as bland, a possible antidote for those tired of Trudeau’s flash. The 40-year-old fiscal and moral conservative calls Trudeau a phony who can’t even recall how many times he has worn blackface.

Andrew Scheer✔@AndrewScheer

Justin Trudeau will pay any price to stay in power and he will use your money to do it.

A Trudeau-NDP coalition is a coalition you can’t afford.

I’ve spent the last 39 days talking about my plan to help you get ahead, and a Conservative government will do just that.

Conservative Jason Kenney, Alberta’s premier and a close friend of Scheer, calls the party leader “an extremely normal Canadian” who is so nice he “can’t fake being mean”.

Scheer, however, has so relentlessly attacked Trudeau that Nik Nanos, a Canadian pollster, said he hasn’t been himself.

“Scheer has been hostage to the message,” Nanos said. “His campaign has made him into an attack machine.”

Conservative supporters chanted “Lock him up! Lock him up!” at a rally Saturday after Scheer said he would investigate Trudeau’s attorney general scandal – mirroring the Hillary Clinton “Lock her up!” chant popular at Trump rallies. Scheer moved to calm the crowd and changed the chant to “Vote him out”.

Hugging refugees

Trudeau embraced immigration at a time when the US and other countries were closing their doors, even personally welcoming Syrian refugees to Canada with a hug and a gift of a parka. More than 45,000 Syrians were resettled in the country during his first term in office.

Under Trudeau’s leadership, Canada became only the second nation to legalise cannabis, held a public inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women, and passed legislation permitting medically assisted suicide.

His also negotiated a new free trade deal for Canada with the US and Mexico amid threats by President Donald Trump to scrap it.

But Trudeau’s efforts to strike a balance on the environment and the economy have been criticised by both the right and left. He brought in a carbon tax to fight climate change but rescued a stalled pipeline expansion project to get Alberta’s oil to international markets.

Scheer, for his part, is promising to end the carbon tax and cut government spending, including foreign aid, by 25 percent.

“That money belongs to you, not to them,” Scheer said.

Battleground push

Their voices hoarse, the frontrunning rivals made last, desperate pitches to undecided voters over the weekend in the key battleground provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.

“We need a strong, progressive government that will unite Canadians and fight climate change, not a progressive opposition,” Trudeau told a rally in a suburb of Vancouver after whistle-stops in Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta.

“We need to unite as citizens. We need to unite as a planet,” the Liberal leader said.

Scheer, also crisscrossing the country over the weekend, accused the Liberals of being spendthrift, saying on Sunday in Vancouver: “The choice tomorrow is between a Liberal-NDP coalition that will run massive deficits and leave less money in your pocket or a Conservative government that will get back to balanced budgets and make life more affordable.”

“Trudeau would pay any price to stay in power and he’d use your money to do it,” he continued. “We want Canadians to send Conservative MPs to Ottawa to undo the damage that Justin Trudeau has caused.”

(FRANCE 24 with AP and AFP)

21, October 2019

Tiger Woods hints he’ll pick himself for Presidents Cup ⁰

Tiger Woods said Monday his fitness was ahead of schedule after arthroscopic knee surgery, and dropped a heavy clue he might use one of his four Presidents Cup captain’s picks on himself.

“I’m probably a week early. My season had ended a little bit earlier than I had expected it,” the 15-time major winner told reporters at Narashino Country Club near Tokyo.

“I had the procedure a little bit early and got ahead of it,” he added.

Woods is in Japan this week to play in the US PGA Tour’s inaugural Zozo Championship, a $9.75 million event that is the second tournament of an almost $30 million Asian swing.

He then intends to round off his year by playing in the Hero World Challenge on December 4, before going to Australia to captain Team USA in the Presidents Cup which begins on December 13.

“I thought that I had enough time to rehab it correctly and be ready for this event, be ready for Hero, and I’m going to Australia either way whether I’m playing or not,” Woods said.

“I had it done and, as I said, it’s been nice to be able to squat down and read putts and I started going at it full speed again.”

Woods, who completed a remarkable return from years of injury and personal problems to win the US Masters in April, said his knee had been giving him more pain as the year wore on.

“It progressively got worse and got to the point where it was affecting even reading putts,” the 43-year-old Woods said.

Woods has a large depth of talent from which to make his four captains picks ahead of the match against Ernie Els’s International team at Royal Melbourne.

He admitted it hasn’t been easy. “I’ve been pretty consumed by it,” he said, adding his return to fitness made it more likely that he would use one of his wildcards on himself.

– ‘Tall order’ –

“It made me more hopeful that I could play this week, play Hero and play Australia,” said Woods, who has dropped one place to number 10 in Monday’s new world rankings.

“The way I was feeling towards the middle part of the year, it was going to be a tall order to be able to do it all.”

If Woods burns one of his picks on himself that leaves him the difficulty of choosing three players from the likes US Open champion, Gary Woodland, Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler, Kevin Kisner and Jordan Spieth, who showed a return to form at the CJ Cup in Korea which ended Sunday.

All except newlywed Fowler, who is on honeymoon, are playing in Asia over the next two weeks. Woods has to nominate his side directly after next week’s WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.

“I’ve been able to communicate with all the eight (already qualified) guys who they want on the team and who they think that will fit on the team,” he said.

Woods also reiterated he wanted to come back to Japan next year to represent the US at the 2020 Olympics.

“I would love to play in an Olympic Games,” he said.

“Over the years, having friends compete in the Olympics, seeing golf be part of the Olympics, it would be an honour to represent my country in an Olympic Games.

“Hopefully next year I can have a good year and qualify.”

Before all that, however, he was taking part in a Skins Challenge on Monday afternoon against Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama to kick off Zozo Championship week.

Source: AFP

20, October 2019

England: FA Cup match abandoned after alleged racist abuse of Cameroon goalkeeper ⁰

The 33-year-old was allegedly a victim of racist abuse and violent conduct from fans of the visiting team in Saturday’s cup qualifying match

The FA Cup fourth qualifying round match between non-league side Haringey Borough and National league outfit Yeovil Town did not end well as both teams walked off the pitch because of reported racist abuse directed at Douglas Pajetat.

The Cameroon goalkeeper was said to have been racially abused by Yeovil Town fans and he was also hit by objects thrown from the away end of the stadium.

Haringey Borough FC@HaringeyBoroFC

Sorry for the late update but wanted to make sure we gave correct information.

Game has been abandoned following racial abuse. Horrendous afternoon.

It must be said that 99.9% of @YTFC fans are also disgusted by what’s happened as much as we are.

One club, one community

The encounter at the Coles Park Stadium was stopped in the 64th minute after Rhys Murphy fired the visitors ahead from the spot.

Source: Goal.com

20, October 2019

Ceding of Bakassi: 13 years on, Greentree agreement unratified, unimplemented ⁰

Thirteen years after oil and natural gas-rich Bakassi Peninsula was ceded to the Republic of Cameroon, the United Nations (UN)-backed Greentree Agreement, which both countries signed on June 12, 2006, to formalise the exercise has neither been ratified nor implemented.

The development, which has left returnees and those who chose to stay back in Cameroon disconsolate, is also in clear violation of Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution, which spells out how treaties could be ratified and given the force of law.

The failure to ensure that the agreement is given the force of law, has had dire implications on the Cross River state’s economy, created a protracted humanitarian crisis by compromising the wellbeing of the returnees, as well as failed to bring the matter to a logical conclusion.

The Greentree Agreement was the formal treaty, which resolved the Cameroon-Nigeria border dispute that had roots in armed clashes between both countries in Bakassi dating back to 1913, 1981, 1994, and 1996.

The dispute, which was referred to the International Court of Justice, was on October 10, 2002, resolved in favour of Cameroon. And on June 12, 2006, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Paul Biya signed the agreement, concerning the withdrawal of troops and the transfer of authority in the Peninsula.

The withdrawal of Nigerian troops was set for 60 days, and room made for a possible 30-day extension, while Nigeria was allowed to keep its civil administration and police in Bakassi for another two years.

A follow-up committee, comprising representatives from Nigeria, Cameroon, Germany, United Kingdom, United States, France, and the United Nations, was set up to monitor the implementation of the agreement.

Eleven years after the signing of the agreement, precisely on July 27, 2017, the National Assembly, in the wake of an alleged attack and killing of 97 Nigerians over failure to pay a discriminatory boat levy of N100, 000, resolved to investigate the killings, and also directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to urgently submit the 2006 agreement for ratification.

While deploring the executive’s failure to ensure that the agreement, which includes an outline of Cameroon’s commitment towards Nigerians who decided to remain in the Peninsula, was adhered to, the Senate called on the Federal Government to come up with a clear policy on the protection of indigenes of Bakassi in the Diaspora, including those residing in Cameroon.

It also urged the Cameroonian government to comply with the terms of the agreement.

According to the Special Adviser on Media/Chief Press Secretary to Governor Ben Ayade, Mr. Christian Ita, “the Greentree Agreement has been observed more in breach. Indeed, we don’t know any part of that agreement regarding the welfare of the affected people and the state that has been upheld or carried out. It is a very sad commentary.”

He said the state government has been saddled with the task of continually sending food and medicals to the returnees. “But we can’t do it alone as we have constraints with funds. More so, the state is also grappling with refugees from Southern Cameroon, who fled the Ambazonian clashes. There are approximately 50, 000 of them in the state. Cross River state needs help,” he added.

On the mouthwatering N3tr suit against the Federal Government, for the loss of the peninsula, which the state government said it was instituted two years ago, Ita said, “we are still getting the counsel of our lawyers, looking at the possibility of a non-sovereign state bringing an action at the International Court of Justice. However, we remain firm in our conviction that the ceding of the Bakassi Peninsula was illegal. Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) clearly spells out how treaties can be ratified and given the force of law. What was done with Bakassi contravened not only the provisions of section 12 of the Constitution, but it was also at variance with all known norms regulating issues of this nature.”

Asked why the returnees were still living as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in schools despite all what the Obasanjo administration promised them, he said: “I do not know why, but the reality is that the displaced people of Bakassi are still in temporary accommodation, which is a primary school in Akpabuyo Local Council. Their condition is dire, with only the state reaching out to them at intervals. However, the Ben Ayade-led administration has just completed the construction of social housing for these displaced people. The housing estate will soon be unveiled and commissioned.”

Ita added that the fact that the state belongs to the minority bloc might have also contributed to the poor treatment meted to its people.

He said: “A number of reasons have been advanced for this treatment, including the fact that maybe because we are a minority. We wish that just a fraction of the help being extended to Boko Haram IDPs in the Northeast, by both the Federal Government and international humanitarian organisations, could be given to the Bakassi returnees. It is said that while everything is being done to ameliorate the sufferings of IDPs in the Northeast, the people of Bakassi appear to have been abandoned by the rest of the world.”

As of 2017, the Federal Government claimed it had paid about N38b to Cross River State as special allocation to the state (over a period of 11 years), as compensation for the loss of Bakassi, and by extension the 76 oil wells. But the CPS said: “I am not in a position to know how the said money was expended since you’re talking about money that was spread over 11 years. Suffice it to say that the Supreme Court had directed the Federal Government to help cushion the effect of the loss of the territory and the attendant loss of oil wells in the state. So, the money was more like a stabilisation fund given the disruption it caused to the economy of the state.

“I must emphasis here that it is even saddening that we are talking about N38b paid over 11 years. When you do the mathematics, this money amounts to nothing. This is what some states in the region get in a month as revenue allocation from the Federal Government. Cross River State is supposed to be compensated in perpetuity.

“As I mentioned earlier, the state government has just completed a social housing project for them. The project has been completed, and the commissioning will take place soon. Importantly also, the state government is constructing a deep seaport in Bakassi. This project is symbolic, as well as economic. Symbolic in the sense that by situating the project in Bakassi, the state government is sending a message to the people that, ‘the world may have abandoned you, Nigeria may have forgotten you, but we are one with you.

“Economically, this project will create thousands of employment opportunities for people. Indeed, in a recent interaction with the media, the displaced persons were categorical that the realisation of the project will wipe away their tears occasioned by years of neglect. With a proposed depth of about 20 meters, and sitting on approximately 36, 000 hectares of land, the port will be the deepest and largest in Africa. It will also be the first agro seaport in sub-Saharan Africa. The economic spin off for the locals, the state and Nigeria as a whole is unimaginable. So, this project will empower people economically.”

Source: The Guardian, Nigeria

20, October 2019

Canada’s Trudeau, main rival exchange attacks as campaign grinds to an end ⁰

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, facing the loss of his Parliamentary majority in an election next week, traded attacks with his main rival on Saturday as a bad-tempered campaign entered the last few days.

Trudeau came to power in 2015 promising “sunny ways” and a new way of doing politics but saw his popularity drop earlier this year amid an ethics scandal. Images of him in blackface emerged last month, further hurting his Liberal Party ahead of the Oct. 21 election.

The 47-year-old prime minister, his voice increasingly hoarse, said Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer would slash spending and rip up Liberal plans to fight climate change.

Polls show the Liberals and the Conservatives in a dead heat, with neither able to capture a majority of the 338 seats in the House of Commons. This would leave the winner in a vulnerable position, seeking to govern with smaller parties.

“I am very excited and confident about the choice Canadians are making,” Trudeau answered when asked if he was worried about losing. “And the question they’re facing is with that vote do we stop conservative cuts? Do we invest in our families and in our future and make life more affordable for them?” Trudeau said after a rally in a fire station in the Ontario city of Hamilton, to the west of Toronto.

In the absence of an overriding narrative, dirty tactics and awkward moments have characterized the campaign.

A Nanos Research poll for the Globe and Mail and CTV released on Saturday put the Liberals at 32.6% public support and the main official Conservatives at 30.3%. The left-leaning New Democrats, who compete for the same voters as the Liberals, were at 18.4%.

Trudeau sidestepped questions about his plans if he did not win a majority. Minority governments in Canada rarely last more than two and a half years.

Scheer, speaking at a campaign event on Saturday, said Trudeau would spend his first 100 days negotiating a coalition with the New Democrats that would impose tax hikes.

“It’s quite clear that under Justin Trudeau region has been pit against region. Justin Trudeau has divided Canadians. He’s divided provinces. He’s failed to stand up for the types of big ideas, the big projects that can bring this country together,” he said during a pit stop in North York, Ontario.

Trudeau and Scheer made multiple trips to Ontario, which accounts for 108 of the 338 seats in the House of Commons. The Liberals hold 76 of those seats.

Trudeau was scheduled to make four stops in Ontario before flying later on Saturday to the western provinces of Manitoba and Alberta, where anger against the Liberals is rising over government environmental measures that critics complain will hobble the energy industry.

(Source: Reuters)

20, October 2019

US: Bernie Sanders draws thousands to rally in New York in comeback from heart attack ⁰

U.S. presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders returned to the campaign trail in New York City on Saturday, three weeks after suffering a heart attack, and pledged to resume at full throttle his battle against the business and political establishment, including members of his own Democratic Party.

“I am more than ready to assume the office of President of the United States. I am more than ready to take on the greed and corruption of the corporate elite and their apologists,” Sanders told a gathering of thousands of people holding aloft placards at the Queensbridge Park.

“To put it bluntly, I am back.”

Sanders, one of 19 Democrats fighting to take on Republican President Donald Trump at the polls in November 2020 was introduced by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the leaders of the party’s progressives and a frequent target of Trump’s attacks.

The congresswoman announced her support to Sanders’ campaign as his campaign battled to overcome the health scare and a surge in support for Elizabeth Warren, a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts.

Sanders, 78, the oldest candidate in the crowded Democratic field, has bounced back rapidly since the Oct. 1 heart attack that threatened to derail his campaign.

But Sanders, a U.S Senator from Vermont, was already running third behind Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden in most national polls, although Sanders raised more money for his campaign in the last quarter than any other Democrat.

The rally was Sanders’ largest of his 2020 campaign so far, with 25,872 people attending, his campaign said, citing a count by an outside company that managed the event, which Reuters was unable to independently verify.

The number would make the rally larger than one held in the city by Warren last month, Warren’s largest of the campaign.

“His supporters are so much more passionate” than other Democratic candidates, said Christina Martin, 29, from Manhattan, who came to the rally with her mother, also a Sanders supporter and a breast cancer survivor.

Both said Sanders’ proposal for government-run health care was his main draw, and credited him with focusing the Democratic Party on the issue.

“He moved the party so much in the past four years,” said Martin. “We wouldn’t be where we are without him. We wouldn’t be talking about Medicare for All.”

Endorsement

The backing of Ocasio-Cortez is expected to boost Sanders in his efforts to fight off Warren. The filmmaker Michael Moore also spoke to endorse Sanders’ campaign.

Ocasio-Cortez, better known by her initials AOC, was welcomed with chants of “Green New Deal”, a reference to her proposal for a transition to renewable energy sources that has been taken up by Sanders as part of his policy platform.

The New York native went from working as a poorly paid waitress as recently as last year to sitting in Congress, she said, crediting Sanders for her own political awakening and shaking up U.S. politics with his primary challenge of eventual nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“It wasn’t until I heard of a man by the name of Bernie Sanders that I began to question and assert and recognize my inherent value as a human being that deserves healthcare, housing, education and a living wage,” she told the rally.

Ocasio-Cortez volunteered as an organizer for Sanders’ 2016 campaign before winning her own election to the House of Representatives last year representing a district close to the site of the rally.

Progressive platform

Sanders, after taking the stage to AC/DC’s “Back in Black” song, launched into a wide ranging critique of an unequal U.S. society beset by what he described as the corrupting influence of corporate power.

He noted the park he was speaking in sat beside the country’s largest public housing project, Queensbridge Houses, which he said was in urgent need of repair, while just across the East River lay the shining skyscrapers of Manhattan, where banks and multinational corporations are headquartered.

Sanders said he would invest in public housing and education and write off medical debts, but warned that elites in politics, business and the media were working against his plans to address inequality.

“They want us to believe that the only reality that we can live under is the status quo, that real change is impossible,” said Sanders, also slamming moderate Democrats who questioned the affordability of his proposals during a debate in Ohio on Tuesday night.

He would raise taxes on the rich to pay for his plans, Sanders said, including through a wealth tax on those with a net worth of more than $32 million.

David Cobb, 61, said that, like many at the rally, he was drawn to Sanders’ by his plans for healthcare reform.

Cobb had one arm in a sling from recent shoulder surgery and clutched a “Bernie” placard under the other arm. He was accumulating thousands of dollars of medical debt, he said, despite having some coverage through the existing Medicare plan for older Americans and a health maintenance organization.

“It’s corrupt,” said Cobb. “We’re the only industrialized country in the world that’s like this.”

(REUTERS)

20, October 2019

As Kremlin scrambles for Africa, Moscow university eyes soft power ⁰

As the Kremlin seeks to boost ties with Africa, a Moscow university that was a training ground for the continent’s elite during the Cold War is once again working to bolster Russia’s soft power.

The Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, created in 1960 to improve Soviet ties with developing nations, counts among its alumni top politicians in Rwanda, Uganda, Mali, Chad, Angola, Botswana and other African countries.

But after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia’s interest in Africa declined and the institution briefly became better known for skinhead attacks on its students than for building bridges with the continent.

Now, as Moscow prepares for the first Russia-Africa summit on October 23-24, rector Vladimir Filippov says the university is reviving its status as a top destination for young Africans.

“Our task — and the task of Russia as a whole — is to revive the system that we once had during the Soviet Union” for the advanced training of Russian and foreign students, he said.

Filippov, a former education minister, told AFP he welcomes two African university delegations a month, on average, seeking to develop ties with the institution.

Around 1,200 African students are enrolled in the university, which is spread across several campuses in a southern district of Moscow.

During the Soviet period it was known as Patrice Lumumba University after the Congolese independence leader. Today it goes by the Russian acronym RUDN.

In a hall of the grey, Soviet modernist main building, Russian and foreign students mingle as members of the Guinean society dance to traditional music.

– Exporting Russian expertise –

Filippov says the university’s aim is not simply to attract African students to Russia, but also to export Russian expertise to the continent and vice versa.

Of RUDN’s cooperation agreements with 49 African universities, more than 20 were inked in the last two years.

In addition, RUDN has established Russian language centres in Namibia and Zambia.

The rector acknowledged that this increased activity was tied up with Moscow’s aim to develop its presence in some African nations.

“Of course it’s always a question of geopolitical interests and economics,” Filippov said.

The university is meanwhile hoping that some of its Russian students will spend time in Africa after they graduate. At the end of this month, RUDN will host its first “I Want to Work in Africa” careers fair.

The Soviet Union maintained a strong presence in Africa as part of its ideological war with the West, backing liberation movements and sending tens of thousands of advisors to former colonies that had gained independence.

Touting military cooperation, arms deals and investment, Russia is making a comeback on the continent and seeks to rival European countries and even China, analysts say.

Chimuka Singuwa, a 23-year-old Zambian who is working towards a master’s degree in international relations and diplomacy at RUDN, said he had the opportunity to study in Russia or China.

– Russia or China? –

He chose Moscow on the advice of his grandfather, who was a student at RUDN in the 1970s.

Singuwa said he had no regrets about passing up on a Chinese education.

“I’m kind of against the ‘takeover’ of Africa by the Chinese,” he said, pointing to the debt Zambia has accumulated with China, its main investor.

Singuwa will travel to the Russian resort town of Sochi to work as a volunteer at the Africa summit, which he described as a “great opportunity” for the regions to develop their relations.

RUDN hit international headlines in 2003 with a dormitory fire that killed 43 foreign students. Arson was never ruled out, and witnesses and rights groups criticised what they said was a slow response to the blaze.

At the time, foreign students also told media of racially motivated attacks.

But Singuwa said he had encountered little racism in Moscow.

“In some remote areas in Russia, where there’s one foreigner, that’s kind of difficult,” he said.

Ousmane Setibaye Sou, a 25-year-old undergraduate from Chad, told AFP he had come to Moscow expecting racism but had not experienced any.

He said he would like to help develop cultural relations between Russia and his home country.

“There are many people there who speak Russian,” he said, adding that dozens of Chadians had been coming to Russia to study every year since the 1970s.

“Even our former prime minister (Yusuf Saleh Abbas) was a student” at RUDN, he said.

Culled from AFP