AFRICAN IMMIGRATS DRIFT TOWARD LATIN AMERICA

Stowed away on cargo ships and unsure where their dangerous journeys will take them, increasing numbers of African immigrants are arriving in Latin America as European countries tighten border controls.

Some head to Mexico and Guatemala as a stepping stone to the United States, others land in the ports of Argentina and Brazil. Though many arrive in Latin America by chance, once in the region they find governments that are more welcoming than in Europe.

"One night I went to the seaport. I was thinking I was going to Europe. Later I found out I was in Argentina," said Sierra Leone immigrant Ibrahim Abdoul Rahman, a former child soldier who said he escaped his country's civil war by sneaking onto a cargo ship for a 35-day voyage.
In Brazil, Africans are now the largest refugee group, representing 65 percent of all asylum seekers, according to the Brazil's national committee for refugees.

There are now more than 3,000 African immigrants living in Argentina, up from just a few dozen eight years ago. The number of asylum seekers each year has risen abruptly, to about 1,000 a year, and a third of them are African.

"We're seeing a steep increase in the number of Africans coming to the country and seeking asylum," said Carolina Podesta, of the Argentine office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

This is still low compared to the tens of thousands of immigrants who make the journey to Europe each year, but Africans are expected to come to Latin America in increasing numbers.
"It's a search for new destinations," Podesta said, adding that many were being pushed by tougher European immigration and security policies put in place after September 11, 2001.
"We're seeing a stable trend and it's still growing."

For many, their journey starts by dodging port controls in Africa and then surviving on water and biscuits for weeks.

"We've seen cases where they arrive hidden inside the rudder of a ship," said Fernando Manzanares, Argentina's immigration director. "Imagine what it's like to cross the Atlantic hidden in such a small space, trying to evade the crew."

VISAS AND CLASSES

Millions of Europeans arrived in South America aboard ships in the 19th century escaping poverty and war, while Africans arrived on slave ships to work on Brazil's vast sugar cane plantations.

Nowadays, Africans might arrive on cargo ships or commercial planes and then seek asylum or overstay tourist visas. In Argentina, they can obtain temporary work visas shortly after arriving and renew them every three months.

"The migratory policies of the country are very favorable," said Manzanares. "It's a reflection of history. What happened with European immigrants 100 years ago is now happening with African immigrants."

Africans in Argentina can also obtain free health services and some take Spanish lessons taught by Catholic charities.

Many eventually settle here, marry, or become Argentine citizens. Some Africans who have arrived legally have managed to work as musicians and a few others play professional soccer for local clubs. The majority earn a living selling jewelry on the streets of Buenos Aires.

Abdoul Rahman met his Argentine wife when he sold her a ring five years ago. He sends money to his mother and seven sisters in Africa and stays close to his Muslim religion at Buenos Aires' Alberdi mosque.

There Rahman meets dozens of other Africans for Friday prayers. Although some of those interviewed said they faced racism in Argentina, they agreed that it was minor compared to the xenophobia and anti-immigration laws that African migrants face in Europe.

Italy enacted legislation in July that made it a felony to be an illegal immigrant or to help one.
During the 1990s a large number of Angolans fled the civil war and settled in communities in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Now increasing numbers of immigrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo are escaping violence and civil war back home and seeking asylum in Brazil, which can be an easy country for African immigrants to adapt to because it has the largest black population outside of Africa.

"The adaptation process is really good in Brazil," said Carolina Montenegro of UNHCR in Brazil. "For Africans it tends to be easier because of this cultural heritage."

More and more immigrants from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia are also making their way to Mexico and Central America via cargo ships, hoping to eventually reach the United States over land.

The number of Africans passing through the detention center in Tapachula, a city near Mexico's southern border, was more than 600 last year, three times as many as in 2007.

Some immigrants make epic journeys through many countries to find a new home. Mohamed Ahmed Hassen, 31, a Somali truck driver, sold his land to pay for his journey. He traveled through Kenya and Tanzania to Mozambique where he paid a trafficker $1,500 to get him on a ship to Sao Paulo.

"We didn't know if it was day or night," he said. "We had no watches to see the date. We only knew we were there a long time."

From Brazil, he went to Colombia and then by boat to Panama, on to Costa Rica, then Nicaragua and finally Guatemala where he was detained and where he is now seeking asylum.

Liberian immigrant Emmanuel Danso, 18, came to Argentina in July stowing aboard a cargo ship after his parents were killed during his country's civil war. Now he wants to study to become a laboratory technician.

"Back home I'm homeless; I'm an orphan," Danso said, as he walked into a Spanish lesson at a Catholic charity. "But in this country there's great opportunity for me."

CAMEROON NA NAIGERIA WAULA KWENDA KUSINI 2010

Nigeria 3 Kenya 2

Cameroon 2 Morocco 0

Naomi karibu Bongo!!!!

Kombe lawasili Nairobi, lakini je! Odinga anafikiria nini?

BE WISE AT YOUR AGE:

· Talking is cheap until you hire a lawyer to do it for you

. Do not run away from rain to hide in a pond of water

· When you give a friend a goat, you have to let go of the leash

· A woman who wants a child doesn't sleep in her clothes

· If you want to smear somebody's face with mud, be prepared to dirty your hands

· It's only a dead man who has everybody on his side

· Only a goat that is tired of life, invites a lion to dinner

· He who never knows where he is going, will never know whether he has arrived

. If you don't scale the mountain, you can't view the plain

· United we are rock, divided we are sand

· It is a foolish fly that is buried with a corpse

· Life is like riding a bicycle, you don't fall off unless you stop pedalling

· It is not by watching a newly-wed wife that she is going to become pregnant

· A dead man does not know the value of his coffin

· If you waited for a roasted piece of liver to cool, it will cool in someone else's mouth

· If you kill time, you will bury opportunities

· A person who sells eggs does not start a fight in the market

· It is unwise to test the depth of water with both legs

· It requires a lot of carefulness to kill a fly that perches on a scrotum

· If you have a poor father, that is destiny; if you have a poor father-in-law, that is your mistake

· Whether the egg crashes on the coconut or the coconut crashes on the egg, it is the egg that suffers

· If you want to improve your memory, lend someone some money

· Ears that do not listen to advice, accompany the head when it is chopped off

Mozambique's President Armando Guebuza won a landslide re-election with 75 percent of the vote, election officials said Wednesday.
"The National Elections Commission announces that citizen Armando Emilio Guebuza has been re-elected president of the republic of Mozambique for a period of five years," the commission's chief Joao Leopoldo da Costa told reporters, after the vote on October 28.
In the parliamentary race, Guebuza's Frelimo increased its majority from 160 seats to 191 seats in the 250-member legislature.
The race for second place -- closely watched in the wake of a recent opposition split -- was won by long-time opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the former rebel movement Renamo, who took 16.5 percent of the vote.
Daviz Simango, founder of the breakaway Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), was in third place with 8.6 percent. The new party took only eight seats in parliament, against 51 for Renamo.
The October 28 vote was Mozambique's fourth national poll since a 16-year civil war between Renamo and the Frelimo government ended in the establishment of multi-party democracy in 1994.
South African President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday congratulated Guebuza on his re-election, hailing the "excellent, historic and neighbourly relations" between the neighbouring countries and their citizens.
"It is furthermore my profound wish that these warm and close ties will continue to prosper during your new term of office", said Zuma in a statement.

Only in Africa...

Toto la Kiswahili!

Inavyoelekea ni kwamba sehemu kubwa ya elimu yetu haswa ile ya shule za msingi, bado iko nyuma sana. Kuna uwezekano kabisa wa karne ya 22 kutukuta bado tunajiburuza na tuliyoyafanya karne ya 19. Je! hii ina maana ya kwamba hatuelewi umuhimu wa elimu katika maendeleo ya Taifa letu?

Mwalimu Nyerere aliwahi kusema kwamba Taifa letu ili liendelee tunaitaji kupambana na vitu vitatu - "Ujinga, Maradhi na Umasikini," na sielewi ni katika mpangilio upi, lakini inaonekana kwamba vyote vinaelekea kutushinda. Siamini kabisa ya kwamba tunawekeza rasilimali zetu kwa kiasi kikubwa katika elimu au tiba na badala yake siku zote tunawarusha watu wetu kwenda nje kwa matibabu na elimu kwa gharama kubwa sana kwa kutumia rasilimali ambazo pengine tungewekeza nyumbani kwa faida ya wengi.

Taifa letu lazima lianze kufikiria kutoa elimu sambamba na ya dunia ya kwanza ni si ya ubabahishaji. Tunahitaji kuinua kiwango cha elimu yetu kwa kuwekeza zaidi kwenye elimu. Ni sawa kabisa kuwa na ma-mall makubwa, lakini je mahospitali ya kisasa tunayo? Au ndio siku zote tutakwenda India na Afrika ya Kusini? Nawaunga mkono watu kama kina Nimrod Mkono kwa kuwekeza kwenye elimu kiuhakika. "Bila kuondoa Ujinga na Maradhi Tanzania siku zote itabaki kuwa Masikini."

-Fundi wa Kombo-

Mitaa hii pale Dar si chini ya miaka kumi itapata sura mpya kabisa, kwani mengi ya majumba/nyumba hizi zitakula nyundo. Wasi wasi mkubwa ni kwamba je! ujenzi wa majumba mapya pale katikati ya Dar yanakwenda sambamba na mfumo wa maji machafu na maji safi?

Four Catholic men and a Catholic woman were having coffee.

The first Catholic man tells his friends, "My son is a priest, when he walks into a room, everyone calls him 'Father'."

The second Catholic man chirps, "My son is a Bishop. When he walks into a room people call him 'Your Grace'."

The third Catholic gent says, "My son is a Cardinal. When he enters a room everyone says 'Your Eminence'."

The fourth Catholic man then says, "My son is the Pope. When he walks into a room people call him 'Your Holiness'."

Since the lone Catholic woman was sipping her coffee in silence, the four men give her a subtle, "Well....?"

She proudly replies, "I have a daughter, slim, tall, 38D breasts, 24" stomach and 34" hips. When she walks into a room, people say, "Oh My God."

Ingawa Jijini Dar kuna Hosipitali nyingine nyingi, kama vile Muhimbili, lakini kwa watoto wa mjini pale Dar ni fahari zaidi kuzaliwa Ocean Road(pichani juu). Je! hivi hii ni kwa nini?

Hili busi litakutoa Kampala kupitia Mutukula mpaka ndani ya Bukoba!

IN FIGHT AGAINST AIDS, KENYA CONFRONTS GAY TABOO

Confronted by growing evidence that sex between men is a significant driver of new HIV infections, the Kenyan government has shed a long-time refusal to acknowledge the existence of homosexuality and will launch a survey of gay attitudes and behaviors in its three biggest cities next year.

The project is considered a landmark because the government and the vast majority of Kenyan people have long refused to address homosexuality in the fight against AIDS. Sex between men is illegal in Kenya - punishable by up to 14 years in prison - and is seen by many as a Western-imported, morally wrong behavior that is limited to areas visited by tourists.

But officials say the country is in the middle of a full-blown HIV/AIDS epidemic, with about 7 percent of the population now infected and only 15 percent of those people even aware that they are HIV positive. While the vast majority of HIV transmissions are through heterosexual sex or intravenous drug use, research conducted in 2007 suggests that the spread of the disease through gay sex is far more common than skeptics believe. Fifteen percent of all new HIV infections each year are thought to be among men who have sex with men. And because some men who engage in gay sex are married and do not identify themselves as gay, it is seen as one way in which the virus crosses from "at-risk" categories to the general population.

"It will be a tricky issue that is likely to polarize everybody," Dr. Nicholas Muraguri, director of the National AIDS/STI Control Program, tells TIME. "But what we are saying is that we cannot as a country socially exclude these groups and hope that we will win the war against HIV at the same time."

Initial media reports said the project, which was announced last week, would be a gay census - raising fears that gays could be exposed against their will and questions about whether such a count could possibly be accurate. But Muraguri says all information collected by the government will be kept confidential and officials will not seek to contact all men who have sex with men in Kenya. The government will also seek to interview both male and female sex workers and intravenous-drug users.

While Kenyan attitudes toward homosexuality are considered more liberal than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa, gays say they still face overwhelming hostility in the country. The law banning sex between men is a holdover from colonial times but won't be repealed soon; one member of parliament, asked if a draft constitution in the works would enshrine gay rights, said recently that doing so would destroy the document's chances of passing.

Anti-gay attitudes have been on full display in recent weeks as the Kenyan media have breathlessly reported on the civil ceremony of two Kenyan men in Britain. They were dubbed a shame to Kenya, their parents were harassed and The Nation newspaper's website has been inundated with comments, most of them condemnatory.

Because of the stigma they face, gays rarely seek information about the dangers of having unprotected sex. One commonly held myth in Kenya is that HIV cannot be contracted via anal sex, when in fact that is one of the easiest ways to get it. Gays have trouble receiving treatment at hospitals, particularly if they show symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases that might lead doctors to suspect they had engaged in sex with other men.

"Some of us have gone to a public health facility and if the doctor realizes we are gay, they will draw attention to us, even from the reception, calling people, 'Come and see a gay person, come and see a gay person,'" says Peter Njane, director of the Ishtar MSM gay health rights group in Nairobi. Muraguri's NASCOP group, which will lead the survey with funding from the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, says those beliefs must not be allowed to impede the country's efforts to fight HIV.

The researchers will ask a series of behavioral questions to men who have sex with men starting next year in Nairobi, the western city of Kisumu and the coastal city of Mombasa. They will also try to estimate the number of men who are HIV-positive or have sexually transmitted diseases. Such a widespread survey has never been attempted in Kenya before. In a 2004 study in Nairobi, 500 men who have sex with other men were interviewed about their health practices, and in Mombasa in 2006 and 2008, 400 male prostitutes were questioned as part of two different sex surveys.

"What we've primarily been slowed by is just not having the clear sense of where those populations are centered in the country and where socially and otherwise we can most effectively reach them," Warren Buckingham, Kenya coordinator for the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, tells TIME.

Much of the gay community has largely decided to abandon the fight for gay rights for now because the hostility they face is too intense. But they hope that initiatives such as the NASCOP research will help reshape Kenyan opinions about AIDS. "As a country and as an African culture, we live in full denial of the existence of homosexuality," says James Kamau, national coordinator of the Kenya Treatment Access Movement, which aims to increase the availability of all essential medicines to Kenyans. "Because of the cultural background, we shut our eyes, our minds and everything, yet it is happening every single day."

13 RULES OF CHEATING

Everyone is bound to cheat on their spouse one time or another. Chance comes to all. Opportunities abound for all to seize. Admittedly, cheating is sweet (stolen bread is sweet). While some will try to remain faithful, a lot more will cheat as the physical attraction wanes. Long term relationships get boring with time. The one-time sweetie will turn sour and will be a big turn off. They just lose that magic that would makes the sparks fly and the heart race like a formula one car. Cheating brings back that energetic spark in ones life. Cheating is inevitable. To cheat is human not to be caught is divine.

Here are a few rules to help you as you cheat.

0. Never ignore your spouse's call when you are out with your lover, much more, never switch it off or cut the line when she calls you.

1. Always let your lover know about your marital status. If you hide your status, your lover might surprise you at a very awkward time.

2. Never promise marriage to your lovers. You can only do so when your spouse passes on.

3. Avoid falling in love with your lovers (this is hard). If you notice that you are falling in love get another lover. If you do fall in love with your lover your spouse will know very fast because it will to show.

4. Be sweet to your spouse when you are cheating. If your spouse demands something, give it to them without being irritated even if it means getting them the moon. Check Nakumatt or Duty Free Shop at UNON orVillage Market as they may just be having a promotion for those who want to get the moon for their spouses .

5. Avoid keeping contact details of your lovers anywhere near home. Phone numbers in diaries or email addresses on receipts is a no no. If you have business cards use these instead and keep them at the office.

6. Never switch off your phone or be protective of it when at home. If a call or an sms comes let your spouse answer the phone for you. You have to tell your lovers not to call you when you are at home. Try to use the company phone for those important calls.

7. Never raise your spouses suspicion. If you say you are going to see a friend that the spouse knows make sure you see the friend first and then proceed to see your lover then return to your friends house, if it is the bar return to the bar. If you lie about being in a certain place and you are not there when a follow up is made then you are screwed.

8. Never let your spouse know all your sources of income. Always maintain a secret account, A sort of CIA operations Account. You need it to finance you covert operations.

9. If you are going to be in a public place always go with a wingman (ormerchie) who is not married.

10. The only time you ever admit cheating is when you are caught red handed. All other allegations "kufwa na no", whether you have cum on your slacks, lipstick on the collar or a used cartridge in the jacket or in the car.

11. Always destroy incriminating evidence before going home. This might include erasing (some) call records, going to the gym to sweat off the sweet perfume. If you drink always rinse off you privates with a beer(preferably the smelliest drink you can find) if you going home drunk.You might just black out in the matrimonial bed smelling of cheap Condoms from Nakumatt (its unmistakable). Remember to always have perfume or deodorant in your car or office make sure it is the same fragrance as the one you regularly use.

12. Whatever you do never neglect your spouse. if you need to buy your lover a RAV4 make sure you get your wife a better SUV such as Honda or anything better than what you get your lover.

13. Never slacken your game in bed (remember a good Whiskey such as Gleinfidic Single Malt or Glod Label helps). Even if you are from havinga sex festival with your lover, always do a repeat performance at home. You might need to act a little to pull it off though.

Kwa kweli Mmarekani ana sababu ya kuwa na wasiwasi, tazama jinsi Mchina alivyojipanua kibiashara Afrika katika kipindi kifupi sana.

" Bwana sisi uhuru tumeupigania sasa tutulie na hapa hatuondoi mtu"