An Adversarial President, A Divided And Discontent People

BY OBI NAWKANMA

Y-NAIJA, JUNE 05, 2016

OBI NWAKANMA

Truth be told, President Muhammadu Buhari does not have the easiest job in the world. But then again, no one who runs for the president of Nigeria ever imagines it to be easy.

Even on its best days, Nigeria is a very complex and volatile mix ethnic and religious differences compounded by a heritage of political ideas and leadership that has more generally emphasized and intensified these differences rather than create a harmonious idea of shared nationhood.

As I have always insisted, a nation like Nigeria, with its many “ancient kingdoms” and “caliphates” contending with the idea of a single organic nation, is a candidate for profound ruptures.

Nigerians have increasingly grown apart, and have been, as a result of the Machiavellian politics of power and control, pulled apart so much that the nation does not mean much anymore to most Nigerians.

As a matter of fact, except for maybe about 5% of Nigerians, mostly beneficiaries of an oligarchic control of national resource, nobody else loves Nigeria. Over 90% of young Nigerians from the age 15-35, given the choice or opportunity will leave Nigeria, and escape permanently.

They have no reason to love Nigeria, or believe in it. Nigeria does not offer them much. In their estimation, the patch of grass outside its shores holds a greater promise of life than the intense discontent, the darkness of the mood that now pervades the Nigerian psyche and its landscapes.

You can feel it also in the actions and dispositions of the new arrivals from Nigeria to the United States: they wish to have nothing to do with Nigeria, or the community of Nigerians. They basically have given up the idea of a “Nigerian home.”

They do not join Nigerian associations. They just do not want to have anything to do with Nigeria anymore. Those who send their sons and daughters out from the burning land must understand that they have given them up for good, and they shall not return.

This new phenomenon of disconnection and alienation is the product of discontent. This is dangerous – this loss of faith that now animates the Nigerian consciousness. Nigeria is the only nation I know of, which is officially not at war, but whose most educated and most skilled are fleeing from home.

This past week, I had an interesting conversation with an old dear friend of mine, a Professor of Philosophy in one of Nigeria’s major Universities, and his lament was as thick as the melancholy conveyed through the static of trans-Atlantic conversation: “the Nigeria you knew has gone from bad to worse, and I’m telling you this.”

Here is a rationalist, whose field is the Philosophy of Science, and who should, were Nigeria and its political leadership be more clear-minded, be on the advisory council of a National Science Foundation, and on the frequent call-list of Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology, saying his dearest hope is to send his children away from Nigeria because he loves them. “The depth of melancholy I felt on returning with them from the US and arriving at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos; the sheer contrast drives me to tears.

As I speak with you, I have no light.” And he lives in one of those faculty housing on campus. This crisis is existential, and we have told this story ad nauseam – the fact that as Nigerians would say, “nothing is working in Nigeria.”

The question is, and has always been, why is nothing working in Nigeria? President Muhammadu Buhari and his school of thought tend to think it is because of “kwaruption.”

Just in case you are not yet cued in, “kwaruption” is the corruption of the word “corruption.” Just imagine, if somebody were to accuse the resident of corruption based on his corruption of the basic morphology of the sounds of the English language.

In any case, I tend to have a different view: corruption is not Nigeria’s greatest problem. It is the fundamental loss or even absence of the imagination.

A nation without visionary capacity is bound to falter. Take for instance, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister of Science and Technology. First class in Chemical Engineering and Distinction in his doctoral work at the University of California, though not the one in Berkley, but in California, and we can live with that.

He has all the right credentials, yet, the minister’s first announcement on resumption is that Nigeria will start producing pencils.

Dear readers, I thought we were all living in the 21st century, where Materials Science has taken us so far beyond lead pencils.

Just last week, the minister also said laid out one of his priorities: he would soon establish science museums in the six regional zones of Nigeria. Why not first activate the Research and Production (RAP) strategies or models of the now defunct Biafra Directorate of Research which led to significant war productions, in the six regional zones of Nigeria? Why not create Research Parks? Why not activate interdisciplinary collaboration between the production arm of the Ministry of S & T with the Ministry of Trade and Industry, etc. I think Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu has lost it. But we watch.

The problem is that Nigerian public leadership does not listen. Those who occupy public office feel themselves immune from the consequences of not listening to the Nigerian public. The feelings and dreams of Nigerians are at odds with the agenda and interest of its public leadership. The president knows it all, and he is not ready caution troops and the police shooting unarmed protesters whose greatest crime is that they are seeking self-determination by peaceful means. He is what the Igbo call, “Eze Onye agwa nam.” That is why the president of Nigeria is now in the process of leading Nigeria to a double-headed insurgency in the South of Nigeria.

Last week’s murder of unarmed members of MASSOB and the IPOB continues a strategy intimidation that will not work, either in the creeks of the Niger Delta or in the streets of Aba.

Voices of reason have appealed to President Buhari to revise his policy of militarization, and stem the possibility of an armed struggle, which no one will win. As a matter of fact, the IPOB/MASSOB have issued a warning that they might be forced to arm and defend themselves against the Federal government’s use of deadly force.

It will be a dangerous situation, and it is in the offing; and the great nightmare which the president’s security analysts and advisers have yet to make clear to him is the possibility of spreading to Lagos, and shutting down the South completely as the Niger Delta militia and the Biafrans establish increasing collaboration with greater strategic objective.

This is the time for the president to stop playing the adversarial president and become the statesman. At the moment the president acts like a school yard bully. He must begin strategic engagement with these agitators, even if to reassure them. Last week’s meeting between the president and a group of his party folk, who claimed to represent the Igbo is a joke. The president met with folk who cannot win elections in their own compounds, and have no mandate from that region. The leaders of the Igbo are, at this very moment, their elected delegation to the National Assembly. Only they can speak, and be used to reach the Igbo, including members of the IPOB/MASSOB, on national issues.

The president’s choice of hosting a mutual admiration party does indicate a profound disconnection with the reality. That the president has never made a real move to reach out and explore means of stepping down the Biafran agitation through negotiations speaks of his capacities, or lack thereof, in understanding the complexity of the situation. That he has never met members of the National Assembly representing the South East on this matter, choosing rather to meet members of his party who do not speak, or act, or have any mandate to represent the South-East, indicates the president’s profound confusion about the East.

I should also say here, and now that the president cannot be accused of not liking the Igbo. That would be a total lie: as he himself has said, he is great friends with Azikiwe’s children; he was an ally of General Ojukwu, and his first two running mates – Chuba Okadigbo and Edwin Ume-Ezoke were respected Igbo. Mike Ahamba stuck with him as his lawyer through thick and thin and disagreed with him only on matters of principle.

The problem is that, in making his first political moves, President Buhari failed to leverage his political capital in the East, and continues to rely, not on diplomacy, but the adversarial use of force to quell legitimate discontent. The president sowed the discontent.

'The Greatest Love Of All' Among Songs Inspired By Ali

Muhammad Ali, or Cassius Clay at the time, strikes a familiar pose as he shouts "I am the greatest," as he leaves the ring, arms raised, following his defeat of former heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston, in Miami Beach, Fla.



NEW YORK (AP) — Before he was even heavyweight champion or had changed his name from Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali was a force in the music world. He had befriended Sam Cooke and released an album featuring his comic poetry and a cover of the hit "Stand By Me." But starting in the mid-1960s, Ali himself would inspire songs of all kinds, from all over the world. Here are some notable releases about Ali:

"The Greatest Love of All" Written by Michael Masser and Linda Creed for a movie few remember, the 1977 Ali biopic "The Greatest," this soaring, self-affirming ballad would conquer the world, first as a hit for George Benson, then as a standard performed by Whitney Houston.

"'Cassius Love' vs. 'Sonny' Wilson" A 1964 comedy track by the Beach Boys that spoofed the Ali-Sonny Liston rivalry. Snippets of the band's hit songs were interspersed with insults exchanged between lead singers Mike Love and Brian Wilson, cousins who would feud for real in subsequent years. "Listen Mike, with a voice like yours, when you open your mouth it's a big putdown," Wilson cracks. Answers Love: "At least when I'm singing, it doesn't sound like Mickey Mouse with a sore throat."

"The Louisville Lip (He's the Greatest)" Memphis singer-songwriter Eddie Curtis used a funky blues track to tell Ali's story, with digs at Floyd Patterson, Liston and other Ali foes. The song came out in 1971, soon before Ali lost to Joe Frazier in 15 rounds at Madison Square Garden, quickly dating some of the lyrics: "He's the greatest, he's the greatest," Curtis chants, "don't you know it, Joe Frazier."

"Black Superman (Muhammad Ali)" A mid-tempo reggae ballad by British artist Johnny Wakelin, released in early 1975 as a tribute to Ali's recent victory over George Foreman in the "Rumble in the Jungle" in Zaire. Wakelin sings some of Ali's own rhymes and adds original lines such as "He moves like the black superman/and calls to the other guy/I'm Ali/catch me if you can."

"8ieme Round" Another homage to Ali's knockout of Foreman, a catchy work of African pop music by Zaire's Trio Madjesi and Orchestre Sosoliso.

Ali Remembered In Muslim World As Champ, Voice Of Change

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali connects with a right against challenger Joe Frazier in the ninth round of their title fight in Manila, Philippines. Ali won the fight on a decision to retain the title. Ali, the magnificent heavyweight champion whose fast fists and irrepressible personality transcended sports and captivated the world





CAIRO (AP) — Of all Muhammad Ali's travels, his 1964 trip to Egypt was perhaps the most symbolic, bringing him face to face with President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had punched above his own weight as a champion of Third World struggles.

Nasser was viewed with suspicion by the United States, but revered across much of Africa and Asia for confronting European colonial powers. For the newly crowned heavyweight champion, being received by one of America's chief enemies announced his arrival on the global stage as a powerful voice of change.

The boxing genius and revolutionary political views of Ali, who died Friday at age 74, emerged when America's civil rights movement was in full swing and the Vietnam war raged on, sharply dividing Americans.

The Muslim world was also gripped by upheaval, stemming from the withdrawal of the colonial powers and the onset of the Cold War. Nasser, a popular Arab nationalist and Soviet ally, had emerged as a leading opponent of American "imperialism," and his fiery speeches touched on themes that would later be embraced by Ali.

Ali's conversion to Islam won him the support of many across the region. Three years later, his refusal to serve in the U.S. Army in Vietnam — "I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong" — and his subsequent loss of the world title resonated with Muslims, many of whom saw that conflict as the epitome of America's global tyranny.

"Muslims wanted a hero to represent them, and Clay was the only Muslim champion... No other Muslim athlete managed to achieve what Clay did ... Thus, he was a symbol for Muslims," said Mohammed Omari, an Islamic law professor in northern Jordan's Al al-Bayt University.

In a Muslim world with a seemingly infinite number of people called "Mohammed Ali," the Louisville, Kentucky, native was mostly referred to as Muhammad Ali Clay — ironically retaining one of the "slave" names that he argued so hard and long for people to drop after he became a Muslim.

It was the diversity of the causes embraced by Ali during his lifetime — from the civil rights movement and anti-war activism to global charity work and dealing with Parkinson's disease — that has won him a large following among a wide range of admirers in the Muslim world.

"The uplifting exuberance of Muhammad Ali will endure long after his passing," Dubai's Gulf News, a widely read daily in the United Arab Emirates, said in an editorial, hailing the "lasting political achievements of one of the 20th Century's greatest sports superstars."

Jordan's King Abdullah II wrote that Ali "fought hard, not only in the ring, but in life for his fellow citizens and civil rights." "The world has lost today a great unifying champion whose punches transcended borders and nations," Abdullah wrote on his Twitter account. Accompanying his tweet was a photo of Ali, King Hussein, Abdullah's late father, and U.S. President Gerald Ford — all in tuxedos.

Mohammed Assem Faheem, a three-time youth heavyweight champion in Egypt, mainly saw Ali as a boxing role model. "When I watched tapes of his fights, I focused on two things: His footwork and defense tactics. I could not copy them, they were too good for me," said Faheem, 26 and better known by his nickname, Konga.

To Nashaat Nashed, a 55-year-old boxing coach who is also a member of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, Ali was an inspiration. "God created him to box, not for anything else. I owe it to him that I took up boxing and that I fell in love with the sport."

Nizam Zayed, 48, a Palestinian handyman at a gym in the West Bank city of Ramallah, recalls watching Ali's matches on television. "My generation liked Muhammed Ali because he was very good at boxing and because his name was Muhammed Ali and he was a Muslim."

Pakistan's cricket legend-turned-politician Imran Khan, writing a series of tweets mourning Ali's death, described the boxer as the "greatest sportsman of all time" and a man of strong convictions. "Sportsmen have a limited career life span in which they can earn and Ali sacrificed it for his beliefs with courage and conviction."

In Iraq, which Ali visited in 1990 to secure the release of 15 Americans who had been taken hostage by Saddam Hussein in the wake of his invasion of Kuwait, retired heavyweight boxer Ismail Khalil mourned the "greatest."

"Today marks the death of a great champion. It is a sad day for the world of boxing. This champion does not represent America only, but the entire Islamic world too."

Associated Press reporters Karin Laub and Khetam Malkawi in Amman, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, Ahmed Sami in Baghdad and Adam Schreck in Dubai contributed to this report.

Pope Proclaims 2 New Saints In Canonization Mass

The relics of Elizabeth Hesselblad and of Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary Papczynsk are placed in front of the altar in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican during the canonization ceremony led by Pope Francis, Sunday, June 5, 2016. Pope Francis has canonized Elizabeth Hesselblad, a Lutheran convert who hid Jews during World War II and Stanislaus, the founder of the first men's religious order dedicated to the immaculate conception.



VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis proclaimed two new saints on Sunday: A Lutheran convert who hid Jews during World War II and the Polish founder of the first men's religious order dedicated to the immaculate conception.

Francis called Swedish-born Elizabeth Hesselblad and Stanislaus Papczynski "exemplary witnesses to this mystery of resurrection" during the canonization Mass in St. Peter's Square. Poland's President Andrzej Duda and first lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda attended the ceremony.

Hesselblad saved the lives of 12 Jewish members of the Piperno-Sed families by hiding them in the convent in Rome where she was superior from December 1943 until the capital's liberation on June 4, 1944.

Israel's Holocaust center Yad Vashem bestowed on her the title "Righteous Among the Nations." It said Hesselblad never tried to convert those she saved but, "rather insisting that they say their Hebrew prayers and fulfill other obligations of their religion."

Hesselblad, who was baptized in the Reform Church, migrated to the United States where she worked as a nurse and converted to Catholicism. She later moved to Rome, where she became a nun and dedicated her life to her religious order. She died of natural causes in 1957 and was beatified in 2000.


She is Sweden's second saint in 625 years, following Saint Bridget, who was canonized in 1391. Her canonization comes ahead of Francis' scheduled trip to Sweden later this year to mark the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation.

Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary, as he is known, supported hospitals and shelters for the poor and cared for the sick in 17th Century Poland. In his early years he himself experienced serious sickness and begged in the streets.

"Papczynski preached mercy and encouraged people to do acts of mercy," the Polish Episcopate said on its website. His crowning achievement was founding the order of Marian Fathers, which preached the cult of Holy Mary.

Papczynski was born in 1631 to the family of an ironsmith in the village of Podegrodzie, in southern Poland. He had one brother and six sisters, and died in 1701.

I Salute Muhammad Ali, 1942 - 2016

After Charles "Sonny" Liston defeats Floyd Patterson in a World Heavyweight title fight, Muhammad Ali holds up eight fingers to indicate how many rounds it will take him to defeat Liston in their fight. Date: July 22, 1963. Location: Las Vegas, Nevada. Image: Bettmann

Nigerian Militants Say Aim Is Zero Oil Output After Three New Attacks

BY LIBBY GEORGE AND ULF LAESSING

REUTERS, FRIDAY, JUNE 03, 2016

LONDON/ABUJA (REUTERS) -- The Niger Delta Avengers militant group has claimed responsibility for three new attacks on Nigeria's oil infrastructure, promising to cut production to zero.

The attacks are the latest in a Delta region conflict that a major local youth group said is "rapidly deteriorating and getting out of control", putting intense pressure on Nigeria's stretched finances.

Early on Friday, the group said via its Twitter account it had blown up a pipeline in Nigeria's Bayelsa state owned by Italy's ENI, hours after attacks on another ENI pipeline as well as one belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC).

"At about 3:30am our (@NDAvengers) strike team blew up the Brass to Tebidaba Crude oil line in Bayelsa," the group said on a Twitter feed it uses to claim attacks.

Shell confirmed its 250,000 barrels a day Forcados pipeline had been hit again and was leaking. "We have ... mobilized appropriate oil spill response measures," SPDC said in a statement.

The pipe had been shut in February after a seawater attack but a new strike might complicate three-month long repairs, for which the firm has brought in experts from abroad. Force majeur has been in place for Forcados crude since then.

The Niger Delta Avengers say oil firms are responsible for pollution and say the poor swampland region fails to reap any benefit from its reserves.

It said its attacks had brought Nigeria's oil production to just 800,000 barrels per day (bpd), from 2 million bpd, without killing anyone, though they hit infrastructure feeding crude grades already under force majeure.

The ENI pipeline is used to transport Brass River crude.

The group also hit ENI's Ogboinbiri-Tebidaba and Clough Creek-Tebidaba pipelines in Bayelsa and warned ENI not to start repairs or "we will make you regrets it".

ENI did not respond to a request for comment.

LOUD SOUND

Ayiri Appah, a resident of Ogboinbiri, where the ENI pipelines are located, said he "heard a loud sound" from the area between 2 and 4 am local time.

Three grades of Nigeria's oil - Forcados, Brass River and Bonny Light - are under force majeure, while Exxon Mobil lifted force majeure on Qua Iboe, the country's largest export stream, on Friday.

Nigeria's oil minister said on Thursday that output was 1.6 million bpd. Even if the most recent attacks, which also included facilities belonging to Chevron under its Escravos grade, took out all exports of the oil linked to them, June production would remain near 1.2 million bpd.

Experts said the violence showed little sign of abating, and would keep pressure on the Nigeria's oil production and finances. President Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim from the north, on Thursday canceled what would have been his first visit to the Delta region since taking office.

The Avengers have accused Buhari of ignoring local problems by having never visited the Christian region in the south.

The Ijaw Youth Council, which represents one of the largest ethnic groups, called on Buhari to "urgently and personally take charge ... to return peace and normalcy to the region."

(Additional reporting by Seng Li Peng, Florence Tan in Singapore, Ulf Laessing in Abuja, Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsah, Tife Owolabi in Yenogoa and Julia Payne in London; Editing by William Hardy and David Holmes)

Genocide: Guilty Or Not Guilty?

BY ERTAN KARPAZLI

TRT WORLD, JUNE 03, 2016

Skulls displayed on a metal shelf in a Catholic church where they were killed during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, in Nyamata April 9, 2014.

On June 2, 2016, the German parliament voted in favour of a resolution which declared the incidents concerning Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in 1915 a "genocide." Turkey, which was born out of ashes of the Ottoman Empire after its collapse in 1923, wasted no time in recalling its ambassador from Berlin.

It is not the first time that Turkey has been at odds with another country over this issue. So far, 27 countries around the world have officially recognised the incidents as “genocide,” as well as the European Parliament. They claim around 1.5 million Armenians died in 1915 during mass deportations from territories now within Turkey’s eastern borders.

Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Slovakia and Switzerland have even gone as far as criminalising the denial of the Armenian “genocide,” even though the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) last year ruled that Dogu Perincek, who was sentenced for denying the “genocide” by a Swiss court in 2007, had his right to freedom of speech violated.

Turkey, on the other hand, says that around 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians died during the deportations, and despite expressing regret over the incidents, has stopped short of acknowledging the event as a genocide.

The events happened in the context of World War I, during which the Russian Empire was supporting ethnic Armenians in an uprising against the Ottomans. Many Turks were also killed during the uprisings, with some arguing that it was the Turks who were the real victims of the incident.

However, in reality, the term “genocide” had not even been coined at the time. It is true that mass killings have been taking place throughout history, but it wasn’t until after World War II that a word describing such atrocities was officially incorporated into legal language.

Wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, when describing German massacres of Russians in 1941, called the atrocities a “crime without a name.”

In fact, before World War II and the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, the absence of international law meant there were no measures in place to recognise the initiation of genocide, nor were there any means of prevention or punishment. Tragic as it was, the mass death of civilians was in the past merely considered to be an unfortunate but natural outcome of war.

Pretty much every nation around the world, therefore, has committed such heinous acts at some point in their history. The ethnic cleansing of Native Americans and Australian Aborigines are just two examples of genocide that are still fresh in human memory, long before the act became a crime.

That begs the question...can an act be considered a crime if it was committed before it was criminalised?

Experts Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn in their book The History and Sociology of Genocide (1990) argue genocide was not defined in the 20th century and stems back to antiquity. Others like Leo Kuper and Rudolph Joseph Rummel, however, focus entirely on the 20th century, while some limit their research to the post-World War II period.

The massacres witnessed during World War II were unlike anything else in history.

It was particularly the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany during this period that led Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin to coin the term in 1944 to describe the “coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves."

Finally, on December 9, 1948, the United Nations passed the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, establishing genocide as an international crime.

According to Article 2 of the Convention, genocide refers to intentionally seeking to destroy “in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” through the following acts: killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s entire or partial physical destruction, imposing measures intended to prevent births, and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Among scholars, many other terms have been coined to describe certain components of genocide.

“Ethnocide” refers to the cultural dimension of genocide, in which a group escapes being killed but has its social culture destroyed.

This term was mentioned in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 1994, although no definition was given. However, the declaration underlines that states must implement measures to help preserve the integrity cultural values and ethnic identities of indigenous peoples as well as their lands, territories or resources.

States are also obligated to prevent forced population transfers with the aim or effect of violating or undermining their rights, forced assimilation or integration, and propaganda designed to promote or incite racial or ethnic discrimination directed against them.

Peg LeVine coined the term “ritualcide” in reference to the tampering of religious practices and traditions, while the word “politicide” has been used to refer to the annihilation of political groups which are not protected by the genocide convention.

Democide, meanwhile, is a recently-coined umbrella term that covers both genocide and politicide. It is also used to define both mass murder and intentionally creating conditions that lead to mass death, such as starvation.

Regardless of terminology, genocide has always been a practice of war. Where the scholars differ is which incidents to apply these terms to. This is where the politicians have been stepping in, choosing to bypass the academic process by presenting their own conclusions based on self-serving interests rather than objective research.

Indeed, lobbies and politicians have been using international law to their advantage in labelling the incidents of 1915 a “genocide,” but sociologists and historians like Mohammad Hassan Kakar have criticised the UN Convention for being too restricted.

Typical understandings of the Convention suggest the perpetrator of a genocide is usually a state and/or its agents. Intent to commit genocide is also a key component in the crime. The perpetrator usually defines the victim of the genocide. To qualify as a genocide, a substantial part of the targeted group needs to have suffered.

However, this presents a number of problems. If a substantial proportion of a targeted group is subjected to a series of massacres on multiple fronts by different actors, the states responsible can each individually deny committing genocide by limiting their role in the crime to small-scale incidents, even if the overall consequences suffered by the target group resemble a genocide.

Perpetrators can also deny intent to commit genocide if there is no way to prove that the massacres were coordinated with other groups.

For example, throughout most of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the Ottoman Empire was being attacked on many fronts by Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians, Croats, Armenians and Russians. Hundreds of thousands of Turks were killed and displaced, but as the perpetrators were numerous and attacks were seemingly uncoordinated, it would be difficult to make accusations of genocide unless the identity of the perpetrators can be unified.

Furthermore, the overall damage inflicted on the targeted group can be downgraded if the perpetrator divides the identity of the victim into various sub-groups. Turks could still claim to have been victims of genocide at the hands of a united enemy, but if they are unable to prove in the international arena that Turks who were killed in Greece, the Balkans, the Caucasus and Cyprus are indeed one and the same, they would find it difficult to establish their case.

Again, if the targeted group is unable to prove affiliation with the victims of genocide, they cannot argue that a substantial part of their group has suffered.

The definition of “substantial” is also open to debate. If 100 members of a tribe consisting of 300 people are killed, amounting to a third of the population, this act could be considered a genocide. But if 1,000 individuals in a nation of 3 million are killed, it is more likely the incident will be called a massacre.

The issue of time is also not addressed in the Convention, so while the death of a million people in the space of a year can be considered a genocide, the death of an entire nation over the period of a century could go completely unnoticed.

Menstruation Frustration: Why Don't More Funders Care About This Key Global Issue?

BY SUE-LYNN MOSES

INSIDE PHILANTHROPY

Image: Food Revolution Network

Billions of women and girls get their periods every month. For some of us, it’s little more than a bothersome time filled with fatigue, food cravings, and cramping. For others—women and girls in poor countries—it can mean being ostracized to a shack until their periods end, missing school, contracting reproductive diseases, and even violence.

A UN study found that one out of three girls, or about one-third, “knew nothing about menstruation prior to getting it.” That same study showed that 48 percent of girls in Iran and around 10 percent of those in India “believe that menstruation is a disease.” If those findings aren’t alarming enough, on MH Day 2015, The Guardian’s Ellie Mae O’Hagan reported that in India, 70 percent of all reproductive diseases are a result of poor menstrual hygiene. Other studies have documented just how much school girls miss because they can't properly manage their menstruation, and how this challenge can also hold them back at the workplace as well as limiting their mobility in countries without adequate restrooms for females.

A simple truth is that it's hard to empower girls and women, a goal that many funders have lately embraced, without making big strides in menstrual hygiene management (MHM). Yet there's not as much money and attention focused on this area you might think. We keep waiting for that to change, with more funders grabbing an opportunity to work a vital but neglected issue.

In 2014, WASH United mounted a global campaign to bring menstruation in the global health and developing spotlight by initiating a Menstrual Hygiene Day (MH Day). Last week, NGO’s, government agencies, the private sector, the media and individuals observed the third MH Day, which is less of a celebration and more of a global moment to build awareness about the critical role that good MHM "plays in helping women & girls reach their full potential.”

In 2015, 127 organizations announced MH Day events in over 30 countries. The MH Day Alliance now has over 400 partners and this year’s MH Day resulted in 180 events around the world.

Still, despite signs of growing momentum, menstruation still remains a largely back-burner global health and development challenge. Surely, there are a number of contributing factors as to why this is so. For starters, even the most pragmatic global health and development experts can get a little bit uncomfortable whenever the conversation turns to periods. What's more, this issue is often seen as a niche concern (as opposed to one that affects 2 billion women every month), and tends to fall through the funding and policy cracks.

Lisa Schechtman, director of policy and advocacy at WaterAid America once wrote on Gates Foundation’s Impatient Optimists blog


Menstrual hygiene management (MHM) rarely appears in donor strategies, national government policies or advocacy agendas. On a good day, it might be a component of national sexuality education curriculum, but this presumes kids are going to school and are able to get this information.

Schechtman also asks “If we get menstrual hygiene right, what else will have changed in the process?” The short answer to that question iseverything—from improving gender parity to breaking generational cycles of poverty.

Not everyone is ignoring the problem, as evidenced by the increased number of MH Day partners each year. As well, there are some funders who totally get it.

Among them is the Caterpillar Foundation, which concentrates its funding on the root causes of global poverty. Since 2010, the foundation has distributed over $30 million in support for female empowerment, WASH, microfinance, and energy programs. The foundation ties menstrual hygiene into its WASH and women and girls empowerment funding.

Michele Sullivan, president of the foundation, noted in an interview with IP that menstruation can effectively prevent young girls from attending school due to the lack of access to bathrooms. And we don’t have to tell you that the less education a girl receives the higher the likelihood that she will marry early and get pregnant at a young age. Pregnancy is among the leading causes of death worldwide for girls ages 15 to 19.

The Gates Foundation is also taking on the menstrual hygiene on a few different fronts. While this isn’t a major funding focus for Gates, it has invested close to $3 million over the past few years in a variety of related projects ranging from the development of a reusable, self-decontaminating sanitary pad to developing and improved understanding of menstrual management to inform WASH planning in developing countries.

The U.K.-based Waterloo Foundation is another big player in this field, awarding grants ranging from $80,000 to $160,000 in support of projects that “specifically seek to address menstrual hygiene management.” Long-time grantee WaterAid is currently receiving a generous £300,000 per year of unrestricted funds to, among other things, “lead the way in harder to fund WASH elements, such as menstrual hygiene.”

While there are big outfits like WASH United, WaterAid, and Plan International leading the charge, there are some smaller groups that are punching well above their weight in this space as well.

Last year, the Nairobi-based Zana Africa secured a $1 million investments from Grand Challenges Canada in support of its transition from pilot to proof-of-concept. The nonprofit founded by Harvard grad Megan White Mukuria is on mission to keep Kenyan girls in school with a three-pronged approach: delivering reproductive health education, advocating for widespread, systematic change though policymaking, and delivering sanitary pads.

Another nonprofit that’s leading the charge in the field is Sustainable Health Enterprise or SHE. Established by Elizabeth Scharpf and a small team of MIT students, SHE is helping women in Africa gain access to affordable menstrual pads. Scharpf stumbled upon the period problem while working for the World Bank in 2008. While in Mozambique, Scharpf learned that at one factory around 20 percent of employees regularly missed work to the tune of up to 30 days per year. According to SHE’s website, the main reason behind the lost work days was because “pads cost more than a day’s wages.”

SHE is a social venture that helps local women “jumpstart social businesses” to produce and distribute affordable menstrual pads made from materials that are sourced locally. SHE also provides training to community health workers on the company’s decentralized distribution system as well as training regarding how to educate girls and boys about puberty and menstrual hygiene. On the policy front, SHE is advocating for government leaders to waive the value-added tax on sanitary pads. With the help of partners like the Segal Family Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, and the United Nations Children’s Fund, the company continues to build the blueprint to take its approach to scale globally.

Afripads is another social enterprise that is working to break down barriers built by menstruation. The group is on a mission to “empower women and girls through business, innovation, and opportunity.” Similar to SHE, AFRIpads manufactures affordable and reusable sanitary pads locally. The company’s Menstrual Kits, are then distributed to women and girls around the world. This simple kit helps women and girls stay in school, prevents them from missing work, and gives them the ability to engage in their normal daily routines and responsibilities.

When it comes to menstruation in developing countries, there are more than a few barriers to change beyond gaining access to health education and sanitary pads. There are also long-held traditions and beliefs, which may be among the most difficult to change. But they need to. We all know by now that when you hold girls and women back from progress, you hold the world back.

Rights Group: Gambia Must End Brutal Crackdown

Associated Press

President Macky Sall (Getty Images)

DAKAR, SENEGAL (ASSOCIATED PRESS) -- Gambian activists and politicians have called on West Africa's economic body to take actions against Gambia for its brutal crackdown on rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in the run-up to elections later in the year.

The calls come as Amnesty International released a report Thursday that says amid opposition protests, peaceful demonstrators and bystanders were beaten and arrested in April and May. The group says 51 people, including the leader and executive members of the opposition United Democratic Party, await trial and at least 36 others have been detained without charge.

Opposition party secretary Solo Sandeng died in custody after torture, the group said, demanding accountability for President Yahya Jammeh, who has been in power since 1994.

"Gambia is already in bad state. I would recommend that targeted sanctions to be applied against President Jammeh and his close associates," women rights activist Fatoumata Tambajang said.

Tambajang called on countries like Senegal and Nigeria to put maximum pressure on Jammeh to step down.

Gambians are forced to face a choice between speaking out or remaining safe, Amnesty said. New laws that further restricted the right to freedom of expression have been introduced since November 2011 elections, and journalists have fled Gambia because of persecution.

Civil society activists have said they can't trust anyone.

Gambia, a part of the Economic Community Of West African States, must observe and comply with its protocol on democracy and good governance, Amnesty said, calling for its suspension from the body if no progress on human rights is made.

Top leaders from the organization have met with Senegal President Macky Sall, the chairman of ECOWAS, to ensure strong actions before the body meets for a summit beginning June 4.

Japan Praises Boy Who Survived Alone, Wonders About Parents

ASSOCIATED PRESS

FRIDAY, JUNE 03, 2016

7-year-old Yamato Tanooka, who was found safe nearly a week after he was abandoned in the forest by his parents in Nanae, Hokkaido, northern Japan. The boy's safe return was welcomed in a nation riveted by his disappearance and undergoing intense soul-searching about how it raises and disciplines its children. This photo was taken by his school before he went missing. (Hamawake Elementary School/Kyodo News via AP) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT


TOKYO, JAPAN (AP) — The remarkable survival of a 7-year-old Japanese boy, abandoned in a forest by his parents who wanted to teach him a lesson, prompted nationwide joy and relief Friday. But Japanese also wondered whether the father and mother themselves might need a stern lesson in parenting.

Yamato Tanooka (Tah-noh-oh-kah) survived alone for nearly a week by finding shelter in a military hut and drinking water from a nearby faucet until he was discovered by chance by a soldier on Friday. He looked a bit worn out but was "genki," the military said, using a Japanese word describing healthy children. A doctor who examined him said he was dehydrated but basically fine.

But some have reacted with outrage, slamming what the parents did as inexcusable — punishing a child for misbehaving by leaving him in a forest reputedly occupied by bears on the northernmost main island of Hokkaido. The parents said they had returned after a few minutes, but couldn't find him.

The incident was seen as underlining how isolated the nuclear family has become in modern Japanese society, with parents not getting enough advice on parenting, and the traditionally present grandma and grandpa no longer part of everyday life.

Mitsuko Tateishi, an educator who has written a book urging mothers to take it easy, said some parents are succumbing to what she calls tremendous "good-mom pressures," such as having their children excel and measuring up to other children.

"A child is not a dog or a cat. You have to treat the child like a human individual," she said, stressing that calm explanations of what is good versus bad is at the root of parenting, not punishing a child with abandonment.

Tateishi also believes Japan remains behind the West in protecting children, and doubts any concrete action will be taken against the parents. "The father is probably really sorry for what he did, but he is so misguided," she said.

Appearing outside the hospital where the boy was flown by helicopter, the father, Takayuki Tanooka, apologized, bowing deeply, thanked everyone for the rescue, and vowed to do a better job as a dad. "We have raised him with love all along," Tanooka said, fighting tears. "I really didn't think it would come to that. We went too far."

Abandonment and child abuse are far more common in Japan than the stereotype of the doting parent and stay-at-home mom would suggest. Corporal punishment in the name of discipline is common, including beatings and getting thrown out of homes in the cold.

There have been reports recently of children who were starved. Even more alarming, local school and community officials have not adequately responded to warning signs, such as a child's bruises or extreme hunger. In one case, parents in their 20s kept their 3-year-old chained to a collar around his neck. The father was arrested.

A report by Japanese police found that child abuse is on the rise, with annually reported cases doubling to nearly 74,000 over the last decade, resulting in nearly 700 prosecutions, triple the number a decade ago, and more than 2,000 children getting placed in protective custody a year.

Yamato's parents are not officially under any police investigation for their actions. Yamato's ordeal, pieced together from information from military and police teams reported by local media, was admirable for his resourcefulness and resilience.

After apparently walking for several kilometers (miles), the boy found an empty hut in an unoccupied military drill area and entered a door that had been left open. The Quonset hut-style building had no heat or electricity and no food, but Yamato huddled between mattresses on the floor and drank water from the solitary faucet outside the hut for several days.

Temperatures drop in the forested area in northern Japan to below 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) at night, and there was rain during the week, fueling fears the boy, wearing only a T-shirt when he went missing, might die from exposure.

The soldier who found him had not been part of the search effort, but when he asked if the boy was Yamato Tanooka, the boy nodded and said, "Yup." The soldier gave him rice balls, which he ate ravenously. When the solider suggested they should go home together, the boy nodded again and said, "Yup."

Although going without water is dangerous even for a few days, people can survive considerably longer without food. But experts stress a water-only diet for so long must have been painful. Daijiro Hashimoto, a former governor appearing on a talk show on TV Asahi, wondered how the boy had endured the loneliness, especially at night, and suggested that perhaps he had imagined he was on some adventure and was hiding in a secret camp.

"He had to keep a very positive attitude," Hashimoto said, reflecting widespread sentiment here. "He is fantastic. He didn't know how long it might take, and when he would ever be saved." Japanese media reports focused more on how lucky and smart the boy had been, and less on criticizing the parents. Yamato's father said he was sorry.

"I told him I was so sorry for causing him such pain," he told reporters.

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at twitter.com/yurikageyama

Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/yuri-kageyama

FIFA Says Blatter, Top Execs Got $80M Over 5 Years

ASSOCIATED PRESS

FRIDAY, JUNE 03, 2016

The logo at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. The federal prosecution office says Friday, June 3, 2016, of the search on Thursday that "documents and electronic data were seized and will now be examined to determine their relevance to the ongoing proceedings." (Walter Bieri/Keystone via AP)


LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND (AP) — FIFA has revealed that disgraced former officials Sepp Blatter, Jerome Valcke and Markus Kattner awarded themselves raises and World Cup bonuses totaling $80 million over their last five years in office.

Some of the contracted payments appear to break Swiss law, and evidence will be given to American and Swiss federal prosecutors who are investigating corruption implicating the world soccer body, lawyers for FIFA said Friday.

"The evidence appears to reveal a coordinated effort by three former top officials of FIFA to enrich themselves through annual salary increases, World Cup bonuses and other incentives totaling more than 79 million Swiss francs — in just the last five years," said Bill Burck of Quinn Emanuel, the U.S. law firm retained by FIFA during its corruption crisis.

FIFA revealed details of the contracts of its former president Blatter, fired former secretary general Valcke and fired finance director Kattner one day after police raided FIFA to seize evidence for the Swiss investigation.

Blatter got a 12 million Swiss francs ($12 million) bonus after the successful 2014 World Cup in Brazil and would have been due another 12 million Swiss francs for completing his 2015-19 presidential term, the contracts reveal.

The secretly agreed bonuses were significantly more than Blatter's base salary — 3 million Swiss francs ($3 million) in 2015 — which FIFA published in March. Valcke got a $2 million basic salary before being fired, but was awarded a $10 million World Cup bonus for 2014 and was due $11 million from the 2018 tournament in Russia.

The police raid Thursday included searches in the office of Kattner, who was fired last week. "Documents and electronic data were seized and will now be examined to determine their relevance to the ongoing proceedings," the Swiss federal prosecution office said Friday.

Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber opened criminal proceedings against Blatter last September, and against Valcke in March. Both are suspected of criminal mismanagement of FIFA money. Blatter and Valcke deny wrongdoing but were banned for six and 12 years, respectively, by FIFA's ethics committee.

No criminal proceedings have yet been opened against Kattner, who joined FIFA as finance director in 2003 and got bonuses totaling 7 million Swiss francs from the past two World Cups. At the height of FIFA's crisis last year, Kattner was given further cash guarantees from FIFA's $5 billion income from the 2014 World Cup.

On May 31, 2015 — four days after the U.S. and Swiss investigations were revealed by police raids on Zurich's Baur au Lac hotel and FIFA — Kattner's contract was extended through 2023 with extra clauses guaranteeing termination pay and indemnification for legal fees and restitution claims.

"These two provisions appear to violate mandatory Swiss law," FIFA said Friday. Kattner's payments were all contracted and approved by the compensation committee FIFA created in 2013 and known to FIFA's auditors, KMPG, a spokesperson for the German official said in a statement.

"Additionally, FIFA will refer the matter of these contracts and payments to the Ethics Committee for its review," FIFA said in a statement. Any ethics investigation could affect two senior officials at the heart of FIFA's financial operation. Finance committee chairman Issa Hayatou, the interim FIFA president while Blatter was suspended, and former audit panel chairman Domenico Scala both approved at least one of the contracts revealed Friday.

Three weeks after new FIFA President Gianni Infantino claimed that "the crisis is over," the turmoil rocking soccer's world governing body continues. Infantino has been criticized for a breakdown in his relationship with Scala, who resigned on May 14. The FIFA president privately described as "insulting" a salary offer from Scala, reported as $2 million without bonuses.

Since Kattner's firing on May 23, German language newspapers have been fed a series of leaked minutes from meetings and FIFA emails which sought to turn scrutiny on Infantino. Elected four months ago to replace Blatter, Infantino pledged reform and a changed culture at FIFA and was expected to face resistance from insiders. The 45-year-old Swiss official also arrived with a reputation as a critic of FIFA during seven years as secretary general of European soccer body UEFA.

Infantino has not publicly criticized FIFA's former regime but the contracts revealed Friday by its top legal advisers seem to have exposed a culture of secrecy and entitlement. Valcke and Kattner signed eight-year contract extensions on April 30, 2011 — five weeks before Blatter was due to contest a bitterly fought presidential election against Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar.

Blatter and Valcke did not immediately respond to requests for comment.