Obama: Important Lessons in America’s Slave Past
Lessons America’s slavery history should not be ignored because it contains some serious lessons for today, President Obama told CNN during his recent excursion to the west African nation of Ghana. “I think it’s important that the way we think about it and the way it’s taught is not one in which there’s simply a victim and a victimizer. And that’s the end of the story,” Obama said at Cape Coast Castle, from which enslaved Africans were once shipped to the so-called New World. “I think the way it has to be thought about, the reason it’s relevant, is because whether it’s what’s happening in Darfur or what’s happening in the Congo or what’s happening in too many places around the world, you know, the capacity for cruelty still exists.” The president was joined by his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters on the trip, which was the first to sub-Saharan Africa for America’s first African-American president.

Obama Will Visit Ghana in the Summer
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are scheduled to visit Africa in June and July. After the president attends the G-8 summit in Italy, the Obamas will visit Accra, Ghana, July 10 and July 11. “The President and Mrs. Obama look forward to strengthening the U.S. relationship with one of our most trusted partners in sub-Saharan Africa, and to highlighting the critical role that sound governance and civil society play in promoting lasting development,” the White House said in a statement. Obama is also set to visit Egypt in early June to give a speech about America and the Muslim world, reports CNN. 
 

Militants Take Over Somali City
Following a fight with government forces, Islamic militant group Al-Shabab took over the Somali city of Jowhar Sunday. Jowhar, which is 55 miles from Mogadishu, is the hometown of Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. The takeover essentially has shut down the city. “All businesses are closed, and residents already are fleeing, while Al-Shabab are roaming the streets,” a journalist in Somalia told the news service. The rebels conducted “search operations in the police station and the provincial headquarters of the town” after seizing the city, the journalist said. Fighting between the group (which the United States claims has ties to al-Qaeda) and the nation’s transitional government has intensified in recent days. On Sunday, mortars hit a Mogadishu police academy killing one person and wounding 15. Violence between the government and Al-Shabab has killed 103 people and wounded 420, CNN reports, citing

Ghana Leader Promises to Cut Spending

Ghana’s newly elected President John Atta Mills has promised to cut back his over-the-top government spending. In his State of the Nation’s speech, Mills said that use of the presidential jet, salaries and training seminars would all be cut back to save money. “What is called for is savings on our part to use those savings in the productive areas of the economy,” said President Mills.  A member of Mills’ transitional team told reporters in January that the nation was “broke.” The last administration exceeded its 2008 budget by almost seven times, the official told the BBC.

U.S. Virgin Isles to Get Stimulus Bucks
The United States Virgin Islands will get a part of the almost $800 billion stimulus package President Barack Obama signed this week, reports the BBC. According to the governor, John DeJongh, they will receive $250 million. The money will be used to renovate schools, improve law enforcement and its health systems and additional programs. DeJongh is going to D.C. this weekend to meet with other U.S. governors about the stimulus.

Air Jamaica Forced to Cut Flights
Jamaica’s struggling airline, Air Jamaica, has been forced to cut flights due to the sliding economy worldwide. The company is currently dealing with revenue loss connected to less and less people deciding to fly into the nation. The airline has seen a 15-percent drop in bookings.  As a result, it has been forced to cut flight schedules from some routes, and some have speculated that it will also have to get rid of some of its planes, although officials deny that claim.

Ghanaians Shocked By Lavish Retirement Package
Not too long after Ghana’s peaceful elections garnered worldwide praise, comes word that Ghanaians are shocked and upset over the retirement package given to ex-President John Kufuor (pictured above with President Bush). The lavish benefits package was approved on Kufuor’s final day in office in a private meeting of MPs and includes a lump sum of about $400,000, six cars driven by chauffeurs and two houses, reports the BBC. Kufuor can decide to replace the cars every four years and he will be able to choose the two houses himself. While citizens in the West African nation respect their former leaders, the benefits for Kufuor are just too much considering some of Ghana’s issues, some say. “We have a lot of problems in the country – water problems, light problems. Two cars with security is OK. But not [six] cars. The country will go bankrupt,” one citizen told the BBC. But one Parliament member insisted that the package would keep the country’s leaders from trying to hold on to power. The nation’s Parliament majority leader, Alban Bagbin, said the measures had not been debated by the government body and that he was unaware of the closed-door meeting the members had to discuss the package.  Another former president, Jerry Rawlings, is also eligible for the package but he flatly refused it when offered. “I’ve lived with the little accorded to me all this time,” he said. “I told them to get lost. You’re not going to entice me with that grandiose rubbish designed for Kufuor.”

Winner declared in Ghana presidential election.

After two peaceful votes, opposition candidate John Evans Atta Mills narrowly won Ghana’s presidential election runoff vote over Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. According to the nation’s electoral commission, Mills won about 50.2 percent of the vote while Akufo-Addo garnered 49.77 percent. The commission also decided that there wasn’t any evidence of vote rigging, but Akufo-Addo is thinking about challenging the results in court, reports the BBC. Neither candidate failed to get over 50 percent of the vote in the first round of elections early in December, which made the runoff necessary.   Mill addressed supporters outside of his party’s headquarters, vowing to be a uniting force. “The time has come to work together to build a better Ghana. I assure Ghanaians that I will be president for all,” he told the crowd. He also congratulated his opponent for “giving us a good fight.” Ghana’s current president, John Agyekum Kufuor will step down this week after serving two terms (which is the maximum).The elections in the west African nation have been praised worldwide for its peacefulness, which is in sharp contrast to the violent elections and campaigns in Zimbabwe and Kenya.

Jamaica sees 13 murders in 2009.

The New Year has gotten off to deadly start in Jamaica, which has seen 13 murders just in the first two days of the year, reports Caribbean Net. The Caribbean nation saw over 1,600 murders in 2008, making it have one of the highest murder rates per capita in the world. Jamaica’s National Transportation Program and Peace Management Institute had hoped for a crime-free January. A 20 year old, Kimani Manderson, was the first one killed, shot at Salt Spring minutes after the New Year. Crime has been a concern in the nation and Prime Minister Bruce Golding plans to make it a priority. “We are going to intensify even further efforts to turn back the tide of criminal activities plaguing the land,” Golding said.

Runoff set for Ghana’s presidential election. Since neither candidate was able to get more than 50 percent of the vote, Ghana will have to hold a presidential runoff election, announced the country’s electoral commission. The runoff, between Nana Addo Danguah Akufo-Addo (of the ruling New Patriotic Party) and John Evans Atta Mills (of the opposition National Democratic Congress), is set to happen on Dec. 28. Sunday’s vote was peaceful and voter turnout is estimated at 65 percent, reports CNN. Even though the election didn’t result in a winner, observers are impressed with how calm and orderly the voting process was in the west African nation. “All of us agreed that these were high-quality, very transparent, orderly, peaceful, patient, fine elections,” said an observer with the Carter Center. “My colleagues with more experience than I have thought these were probably the best elections they have observed.”

Brazilians claim 9,000 people have vanished in just two years. Brazilian protesters hit the country’s Copacabana beaches earlier this week to bring light to their claim that 9,000 people have gone missing in Rio de Janeiro since 2007, reports CNN. Demonstrators, from the group ONG Rio de Paz, illustrated their point by building a cemetery in the sand using mannequins to represent people who were killed and buried, and building fake ovens that death squads reportedly used to cremate bodies. “In general, they are assassinated by police … police acting outside of their regular work hours. They are also assassinated by narco-traffickers. The bodies are disposed of in secret cemeteries in the metropolitan Rio de Janeiro area or incinerated alive by narco-traffickers in what they call ‘microwaves,;” said president of ONG Rio de Paz, Antonio Carlos Costa. He also claimed that no one has said anything about the 9,000 disappearances since most of the people are poor. A majority, about 6,000, were killed by drug dealers, while the rest were killed by hit men and off duty police, Costa said. They came up with the figure using official documents from the Rio de Janeiro governmental Institute of Public Safety, says an investigator from Candido Mendez University.

Voting in West African nation was peaceful. Ghanaians await poll results following the West African nation’s largely peaceful voting in elections for the presidency and Parliament positions this weekend. Poll officials called the voter turnout high and observers described long lines outside of polling stations, reports the BBC. The nation’s current president, John Kufour, has served the maximum two terms and must step aside. Former Foreign Minister Nana Akufo-Addo and the John Atta Mills (of the opposition National Democratic Congress) are the two main candidates and have been embroiled in a tight race. But, despite a close race, coupled with a large turnout, Mills (who is running for a third time) believes the post-election will be just as peaceful as the voting. “In any contest you expect a winner and a loser, and parties are likely to accept the results if indeed the conduct of the process is free, fair and transparent,” he said. In Africa, where violent election aftermaths (such as in Kenya and Zimbabwe) make worldwide news, Ghana has served as a glowing contrast with consistently high voter turnout and peaceful elections. The turnout in the country’s last elections in 2004 was a record 85 percent. And citizens want to make sure transition of power in the nation is as peaceful as possible. “In as much as we need change, we must maintain the peace we enjoy,” said one voter, a business student. “We are very scared of what has happened in countries around us like Liberia, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone.”Female genital mutilation is still practiced although it’s outlawed in the nation.
Hundreds of Kenyan girls escape circumcision. In Kenya, at least 300 girls have run away from their homes to escape undergoing female genital mutilation, reports the BBC. The girls have taken refuge in two shelters in the nation’s Nyanza province. Even though the practice, which involves the female’s outside genitals being partially or totally removed, is against the law in Kenya, it is still performed and some parts of the nation where it’s looked at as a rite of passage for girls into womanhood. The ceremonies happen between November and December and approximately 200 girls are circumcised in the Kuria District every day, according to gender activist Beatrice Robi from the women’s organization Maendeleo Ya Wanaweke. Robi also urged girls at risk of being circumcised to escape to the shelters. Some parents actually encourage their daughters to escape to rescue centers so they don’t have to go through the process, said Kuria police official Paul Wanjama. “There are some parents who are against that [female genital mutilation], but they get pressure from these traditional people,” he told the BBC. The police are investigating cases of forced mutilation and court action will be taken, said Wanjama. The practice could cause bleeding, infections and a higher death rate for newborns, according to the U.N. World Health Organization.

Tomorrow about 12 million Ghanaians are expected to vote for a new president to replace John Kufour, 70, who has led the West African Nation for the last eight years. Eight candidates are running for president and about 1,000 contenders are vying to hold a seat in Ghana’s National Assembly, the country’s congressional body. Onlookers say the mood in Ghana before the tight presidential elections is cautious but upbeat.  There are fears of foulplay but international observers say they expect everything to go smoothly.  While most of Ghana’s neighbors have been involved in wars and civil unrest, the country has remained politically stable and economically prosperous even though there are increasing reports of government corruption and international drug trafficking in the country.

Gabrielle Union talks to Ghana cancer survivors. Actress Gabrielle Union and Malaaka Rock, wife of actor-comedian Chris Rock, said their trip to Ghana as part of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s mission, was transformative. The trip was designed to help reduce the rate of breast cancer among women in the African country, Komen officials say. As part of the mission, Union and Rock joined Ghana President John Kufuor for a dedication ceremony at the new HopeXchange Medical Center, a state-of-the-art breast cancer diagnostic and treatment facility in Kumasi. Nearly 70 percent of all Ghanaian women who have breast cancer don’t see a doctor until the disease is in advanced stages. “I met at least 50 to 60 survivors, which was important because in Ghana there are so many myths and rumors floating around, saying that if you get breast cancer, your life is basically over,” Union told Essence.com.  ”So it is important for women to see these survivors.”  Union said there are also cultural consequences for women diagnosed with breast cancer. “For instance, these women may have their husbands leave them; their daughters may not be able to get married off; and they consider it a curse on the family,” she added. “It’s thought of as something you did wrong, so we always included survivors to show that if you do have breast cancer, you can beat it and you can live.” Rock said she was proud to be a part of the mission and has been active with breast cancer awareness since a neighbor was diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago. “As a young mother with a child, I thought to myself, “that could have been me,” she told BET.com. For more on what both women and other celebrities have to say about breast cancer, go to BET.com/Body & Soul.   

Can Halloween be healthy and hot? Here are tips to a Health Halloween! Halloween doesn’t have to be a sweets fest. There are fun ways to make trick-or-treating healthier. See eight of them at BET.com/Body & Soul.