August 24, 2014

Lincoln Motor Co. Teams With Black Greek-Letter Groups to Help Communities

Shawn Thompson

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Target Market News

(TriceEdneyWire.com) To continue in its efforts to give back to local communities, the Lincoln Motor Company has teamed with the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Incorporated (NPHC), a group of nine African-American Greek-letter organizations. The program, "The Divine Nine Driven To Give Program" is an extension of Lincoln's national Driven To Give program that kicked off earlier this month.

"Being able to engage with influencers on initiatives that matter most to them is key in our efforts to introduce some of our newest products, like the first-ever Lincoln MKC, within the African-American community," said Shawn Thompson, Lincoln manager, multicultural marketing. "We are thrilled to be able to share this program with the National Pan-Hellenic Council to help local communities."

Lincoln's Driven To Give program was developed as an engaging way to help educational and charitable organizations raise additional money to support their cause. Lincoln dealerships team with a local school or charitable organization to conduct a one-day test drive event that will raise funds to benefit various community organizations.

The National Pan-Hellenic Council, also known as the Divine Nine, consists of nine historical African-American Greek Letter Organizations: Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.; Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.; Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.; Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.; Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.; Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.; Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.; Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.; and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc.

As part of the program, each organization selected a charitable program along with a key market for the one-day test drive event. The Greek Influencer Initiative will kick off on Saturday, Aug. 16, with test-drive events in Dallas and Detroit. Events also will take place in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Miami and Washington, D.C., before wrapping up this fall.

Each Divine Nine organization will team with a local dealership to earn up to $6,000 (200 test drives) for their charities. Also, the organization that completes the most test drives, will receive $5,000 for the local chapters and a $20,000 contribution to their national organization.

"This is truly going to be an exciting program for us," said Thompson. "We've been working very closely with the Greek organizations since late last year and we know that there will be lots of friendly competition among the groups in order to make each stop of the program a success."

To find out more details about this program, including cities and charitable programs, visit www.DivineNineDrivenToGive.com

August 24, 2014

Liberian Woman after losing her husband.

Liberians Rebel as Government Puts Ebola Clinic in Crowded Slum

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Global Information Network

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – An Ebola isolation center was overrun by Liberians in the capital city Monrovia over the weekend, as fear and confusion lead some to accuse western countries of inventing a killer disease and then placing a clinic for infected people in the midst of a slum.

The holding facility in the densely-populated West Point slum was targeted by an angry group of citizens who, according to some reports, carried off some of the sick and stripped the clinic of almost all of its supplies. There are an estimated 50,000 people in the West Point neighborhood.

Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah said protesters were unhappy that patients were being brought in from other parts of the capital.

Mr Nyenswah said after the attack that 29 patients at the center were being relocated to an Ebola treatment center at the John F Kennedy Memorial Medical Center. But reporters at the scene contradicted him, saying that 17 escaped and 10 others were taken away by their families – raising the prospect of a widening circle of infection.

The attackers, mostly young men armed with clubs, chanted “No Ebola in West Point”, according to one eyewitness, adding that nurses had also fled the centre.

Jina Moore, a reporter and witness, said she saw the crowd storm the front gate and push into the holding center. “They stole the few gloves someone had donated this morning, and the chlorine sprayers used to disinfect the bodies of those who die here, all the while hollering that Ebola is a hoax.

“They ransacked the protective suits, the goggles, the masks.”

Jemimah Kargbo, a health care worker at a clinic next door, said she saw mattresses and bedding, utensils and plastic chairs going out the door. “What are they carrying to their homes? They are carrying their deaths.”

She said the police showed up but failed to act.

“They said, ‘The president says you have Ebola, but you don’t have Ebola, you have malaria. Get up and go out!’” Kargbo told the reporter.

According to Kargbo, the staff at the clinic lack protective gear. The riot means more infections as escaped sick patients infect their families, and as looters sleep on mattresses where the Ebola-infected have died.

“I have four sons. I am a single mother,” Kargbo said to Moore.  “I’m not going to let anybody infect me to die of the disease and leave my children.”

Health official Nyenswah suggested a quarantine might be imposed on all of West Point, a serious measure that would require meticulous planning and heavy security.

On Friday, the death toll rose to 1,145. There have been 2,127 cases reported in total. 

August 24, 2014

Special Treatment for Whites Led to Marikana Bloodbath, Inquiry Tells

Marikana widow

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Global Information Network

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – A commission hearing testimony on last year’s deadly miners’ strike, heard that white employees at the Lonmin mine got preferential treatment at the expense of their black counterparts, provoking anger and resentment.

“There is still segregation in the mines based on race,” rockdrill operator Shadrack Zandisile Mtshamba told the commission in Pretoria. “All white people are given positions like mine captains…Many white people joined the mine while we worked at Lonmin but they now have better positions.”

He said the August 2012 protest at Marikana was inspired by the desire of black workers to be on par with their white counterparts.

“Lonmin should have spoken to workers instead of calling the police,” Mtshamba said. “They called the police to come and shoot the protesters. Now Lonmin should be giving something to the widows who lost loved ones.”

The Farlam Commission of Inquiry, chaired by retired judge Ian Farlam, is investigating the strike-related violence at Lonmin's platinum mining operations at Marikana in August 2012.

Thirty-four people, mostly striking mineworkers, were shot dead in a clash with police, over 70 were wounded, and over 200 were arrested on Aug. 16, 2012. Police claimed to be trying to disarm and disperse the strikers.

Also called to testify at the inquiry was Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, the frontrunner to become South Africa’s next leader. At the time, he was a non-executive director in Lonmin and played a limited role in its operations.

He conceded he didn’t pay adequate attention to the living conditions of workers or the wage negotiations that sparked the protests.

“I deeply regret the deaths of all those people who died at Marikana,” Ramaphosa told the commission. “I did not foresee the fateful events that unfolded.”

However, transcripts obtained by the Daily Maverick news indicate that Ramaphosa had been pressuring the police minister to act against the striking workers.

Specifically, he was quoted as telling Police Minister Nathi Mthetwa that the South African Police Service needed to take appropriate steps to protect life and property and to arrest the perpetrators of the terrible acts of violence and murder.”

And in a chat with Mines Minister Susan Shabangu, he said he wanted her to know about “increasing acts of violence… which in Lonmin’s view were criminal and would not be resolved without political intervention.”

“The terrible events that have unfolded cannot be described as a labor dispute,” he said in an email to Lonmin colleagues. “They are plainly dastardly criminal and must be characterized as such.”

Meanwhile, an editorial in South Africa’s Daily Maverick, recalled the killing of Michael Brown.

“Most people think of the Marikana massacre as a terrible thing that happened to other people, a world away from their own lives,” wrote editor Ranjeni Munusami. “Just because those in power treat the people of Marikana like children of a lesser God, does not mean we should too.

“In the US city of Ferguson in Missouri, a state of emergency was declared this weekend as protests intensified over the killing of an unarmed teenager by a police officer. We know who Mike Brown is because his community is demanding justice.” Then he asked: “Why are WE not?” 

August 24, 2014

Former Death Row Inmate Gets Law School Degree

Peter Ouko

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Global Information Network

 
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – A maximum security prison was the scene of an out-of-the-ordinary graduation ceremony in Kenya.

Lifer Peter Ouko, surrounded by friends and family, received his diploma in common law from the University of London. Ouko took the course online and now plans to advance to a further law degree.

An inmate at Kamiti prison in Nairobi, Ouko has been in prison for 16 years. He intends to use his new skills to challenge his conviction.

A death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2009. Three years earlier, he had begun to help other inmates voicing their concerns in an initiative he started called Crime Si Poa (Crime is not Good). It drew the attention of an ex-judge, Amos Wako, who asked if he would like to study law. He did.

Rather than "getting mad and losing it" in prison, he said, studying was a way of "keeping it sane and safe for the long haul".

Held on the grounds of Kamiti’s high security facility, the ceremony was a festive occasion for Ouko, his elderly mother and grown-up daughter. Over 100 attendees were treated to a prison band, dancing and cheers, while prison inmates and high-profile guests relished a giant cake donated by Daniel Mungai, a celebrity chief.

Lorna Ouko said she had always wanted her son, the ninth-born of her 12 children, to go to law school - and that his graduation was "a dream come true", even if he was behind bars.

With the support of the African Prisons Project and the British Council Kenya, he was able to pursue his studies at University of London, which provides degrees by distance learning. The initiative is part of Kenya’s prison reform project that ensures prisoners’ access to education and smooth re-integration to the society upon release.