Monday 7 September 2020

Jacob Blake speaks from his hospital bed: 'Change your lives out there'

 Elliot Hughes Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MILWAUKEE – Jacob Blake, shot seven times by Kenosha, Wisconsin, police, has some powerful words from his hospital bed as the nation grapples with escalating tension over racial inequities: “There’s a lot more life to live.”

A minute-long video was posted to Twitter on Saturday by Blake's attorney, Benjamin Crump, in which the 29-year-old Black man calmly described the pain he's experienced and encouraged viewers to value their lives and lives of others.  Blake is paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in the back at point-blank range by Kenosha Police Department Officer Rusten Sheskey on Aug. 23. 

“There’s a lot more life to live out here man,” he said. “Your life, and not only just your life, your legs – something that you need to move around and move forward in life – can be taken from you like this. I promise you, the type of (expletive) that you will go through – I got staples in my back, staples in my (expletive) stomach – you do not want to have to deal with this (expletive), man.

Thousands march: Thousands march with Jacob Blake family in Kenosha: 'We’ll walk hand in hand'

“Every 24 hours, it’s ... pain. It hurts to breathe, it hurts to sleep, it hurts to move from side to side, it hurts to eat. Please, I’m telling you, change your lives out there. We can stick together, make some money, make everything easier for our people out here, man, because there’s so much time that has been wasted.”

In this photo from Kenosha County Court video, Jacob Blake answers questions during a hearing Sept. 4. 2020, in Kenosha, Wis.
AP

The video comes a day after Blake made his first public appearance by video in Kenosha County Circuit Court. On Friday, he pleaded not guilty to several charges stemming from a domestic incident in May – a case unrelated to the shooting.

The investigation into the shooting is ongoing and being conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

Video of the shooting set off days of protests in Kenosha – which sometimes included looting, arson and violence – and attracted in-person visits from President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Biden in Kenosha: Biden describes talk with Jacob Blake during Kenosha visit: 'He talked about how nothing was going to defeat him'

Trump in Kenosha: Trump claims credit for bringing calm to Kenosha in visit criticized as politicizing unrest

Blake was initially handcuffed to his hospital bed with deputies stationed in the room until the open warrant in the domestic case was vacated a week ago after a $500 bail was posted. The handcuffing outraged Blake’s family and others, including Gov. Tony Evers.

A GoFundMe page for Blake’s medical expenses and counseling for him and his family raised $2.2 million as of Saturday evening.

Friday 4 September 2020

What happens when a bird flies into a plane engine


What happens if a bird flies into a plane engine? The event is called a bird strike. Each year, bird strikes cost US airlines an estimated $1.2 billion. Only part of those costs are from actual damage. The rest comes from flight delays and cancellations.

A bird strike can disable a plane's engine. But engines are designed to withstand at least one bird. Plus, pilots can still fly a plane with just one operating engine.

As a result, the chances of an accident are slim. Between 1990-2015 there were 160,894 bird strikes on US aircraft. Only .025% (40) of those strikes resulted in an accident.

Despite the low risk, a bird strike can be a shocking experience. Here are some helpful tips to combat the element of surprise.

Expect more bird strikes from July to October. That's when over half of them occur each year. Most bird strikes happen during takeoff or landing. They're also more likely to occur during the day than any other time.

Now, if only there was a way to let the birds know.

SOURCE

Tuesday 1 September 2020

Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD

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Mukhisa Kituyi, of Kenya, became UNCTAD's seventh Secretary-General on 1 September 2013. After serving an initial four-year term, he was reappointed by the General Assembly in July 2017 for an additional term that began on 1 September that year.

Dr. Kituyi has an extensive background as an elected official, an academic, and a holder of high government office. He also has wide-ranging experience in trade negotiations, and in African and broader international economics and diplomacy.

He was born in Bungoma District, western Kenya, in 1956. He studied political science and international relations at the University of Nairobi and at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, receiving a BA in 1982. He went on to earn an MPhil in 1986 and a doctorate in 1989 from the University of Bergen, Norway.

Dr. Kituyi served as a researcher at Norway's Christian Michelsen Institute from 1989 to 1991, and as Programme Director of the African Centre for Technology Studies in Nairobi from 1991 to 1992.

He was elected to the Kenyan Parliament in 1992, and was twice re-elected.

He was Kenya's Minister of Trade and Industry from 2002 to 2007.

During this period, Dr. Kituyi chaired for two years the Council of Ministers of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the African Trade Ministers' Council.

He also served as chairman of the Council of Ministers of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, and was lead negotiator for Eastern and Southern African ministers during the European Union-ACP Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations. He was convenor of the agriculture negotiations carried out at the World Trade Organization's Sixth Ministerial Conference held in Hong Kong, China in 2005.

From 2008 to 2012, Dr. Kituyi was a member of a team of experts advising the presidents of the nations of the East African Community on how to establish more effective regional economic links.

From 2011 to 2012, he was a consultant for the African Union Commission, where he helped to develop the structure for a pan-African free trade area.

Immediately prior to becoming Secretary-General, Dr. Kituyi was Chief Executive of the Kenya Institute of Governance, based in Nairobi. The Institute is a think tank and advocacy organization that focuses on linking academic research and the development of public policy.

During 2012, Dr. Kituyi also served as a non-resident fellow of the Africa Growth Initiative of the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. He was a resident scholar there in 2011.

Dr. Kituyi is married and has four children.

BY Henry Jefferson Ogoi