Deidre Lorenz na Rais wa IBF-USBA bala la Africa, Masharini ya Kati na Ghuba ya Uajemi Onesmo Ngowi.
Deidre Lorenz na Rais wa IBF-USBA bala la Africa, Masharini ya Kati na Ghuba ya Uajemi Onesmo Ngowi.
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Mcheza sinema toka Marekani Deidre Lorenz amewasili mjini Moshi tayari kushiriki kwenye mbio za Mt. Kilimanjaro Marathon zitakazofanyika juni 24. Lorenz amwasili leo na ndege ya Ethiopian Airlines ambao ndio wafadhali wa mbio za Mt. Kilimanjaro Marathon zinazofanyika jumapili ya mwisho ya mwezi wa sita kila mwaka.
Ujio wa Lorenz ambaye amecheza sinema nyingi zikiwamo Santorini Bule, Perfect Strangers, The Big Fight umeleta msisimko mkubwa katika mji huu mkuu wa Kilimanjaro. Ujio wake umefuatia matayarisho ya muda mrefu ambayo yanaendana na hadhi yake.
Akizungumza na waandishi wa habari waliofika kumshuhudia mcheza sinema huyu, Lorenz alisema kuwa ameisikia kuwa mlima wa Kilimanjaro uko Kenya kwa kwa muda mrefu na ana furaha kubwa sana ya kufika ili kushughudia kuwa mlima huu maarufu duniani uko Tanzania. “Nimekuwa nautangaza sana ujio wangu kwenye blog na tovuti yangu, wapenzi wangu pamoja na watu wengi wanangojea kurudi kwangu nikawaambie niliyoyashughudia” alisema Deidre Lorenz ambaye ameshawahi kuteuliwa zaidi ya mara tatu kwa tuzo za Oscar. Lorenz alisema kuwa kwa miaka mingi alifikiri kuwa mlima Kiliamnjaro uko Kenya kwa jinsi nchi hiyo jiraniminavyoutangaza nchini Marekani.
“Sasa nimeona mwenyewe kwa macho yangu kuwa kweli mlima (Kilimanjaro) huu maarufu duniani uko Tanzania na sio Kenya” alisema Deidre Lorenz ambaye anaishi kwenye jiji la New York City linalofahamika kama jiji la pesa (International Financial Capital) la kimataifa. Lorenz ameshukia katika hoteli ya Bristol Cottages iliyopo karibu na benki ya Standard Chattered mkabala na bustani ya Manispaa ya Uhuru Park.
Mji wa Moshi na viunga vyake vinarindima kwa ujio wa watalii wengi kutoka Marekani ambao wamekuja kushiriki kwenye mbio hizi zilizojijengea umaarufu mkubwa kwa kuitangaza Tanzania nchini Marekani. Mbio za Mt. Kilimanjaro Marathon zilianzishwa na Marie Frances mwaka 1991 baada ya kuombwa na balozi wa zamania wa Tanzania nchini Misri.
Mbio hizi zimejijengea umaarufu mkubwa na zimeshawahi kupata tuzo nyingi baadhi zikiwa zimetolewa na Wonders of the World Magazine lenye wasomaji zaidi ya milioni 5 likiwa limezipa nafasi ya 2 kama mbio zenye hadhi ya kukimbiwa duniani wakati jarida la Forbes la Marekani lenye wasomaji wengi duniani limeipa nafasi ya kwanza. Ndio maana Manispaa ya Moshi itampa barabara na kuiita “Marie Frances Boulevard”mwaka 2009.
Mbio hizi hukimbiwa na watalii wa Warekani wanaokuja Tanzania kupanda mlima Kilimanjaro na kutembelea mbuga za wanyama. Mt. Kilimanjaro Marathon zinajulikana kama 7 continental races zikiwa zinakimbiwa katika mabara 7 ya dunia.
Ratiba ya Deidre Lorenz inaonyesha kuwa kesho ijumaa atakitemnbelea kituo cha watoto yatima cha Upendo kinachoendeshwa na watawa wa Precious Blood. Lorenz atakaa na watoto hao na kuwasomea hadithi mbalimbali za watoto zilizoandikwa na Waltz Disney mwandishi maarufu wa karne ya ishirini wa Marekani.
Siku ya jumamosi atatembelea hospitali ya KCMC ambapo atakutana na manesi ili kuwapa shavu kwa kazi yao nzuri wanayoifanyia jamii. Jioni ya jumamosi atahudhuria Pasta Party ambapo atapata nafasi ya kukutana na wakimbiaji wengine na kuchagua namba ya kukimbia kesho yake siku ya jumapili tarehe 24 juni.
Imetumwa na:
Grace Soka
Afisa Uhusiano
NEPAD Agency says $2 billion committed to Great Green Wall
ECA Press Release No. 97/2012
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 19 June 2012 (ECA) - The focal point of the TerrAfrica programme at the NEPAD Agency, Mr. Ousmane Djibo, said yesterday in Rio that about $2 billion had been set aside to support the Great Green Wall project in the Sahel and West Africa, according to the Information and Communication Service (ICS) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
In a presentation at the high profile roundtable discussion on NEPAD and sustainable development at the margins of the ongoing Rio+20, Mr. Djibo said the development objective of the project is to expand sustainable land water management in targeted landscapes and climate-vulnerable areas in the Sahel and West Africa.
About $108 million of the total project sum was approved by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in May 2011, said Mr. Djibo, adding that the twelve countries are involved are already developing their investment operations which are country-targeted, unique and multisectoral.
The investments are in the areas of natural regeneration of tree cover, integrated soil fertility, water harvesting, agroforestry, soil conservation, alternative livelihoods, watershed management and conservation corridors.
The project would also focus on knowledge generation and sharing, especially in economic analysis, natural resource monitoring, land suitability mapping, hydromet, and land degradation assessment
It will involve building institutional capacities in land use planning, resource tenure, decentralization, network farmer innovation, regulatory enforcement and environmental impact assessment.
Land degradation affects almost 500 million people and two-thirds of productive land. Africa has 17% the world's forests but half its deforestation, driven by agricultural expansion.
In response to a question by the representative of Angola, Mr Djibo said that countries interested in partnering with NEPAD Agency on TerrAfrica and any of its other priority areas should simply indicate their desire in writing to the NEPAD Agency which would immediately dispatch a technical mission to the requesting country for necessary gap analysis and needs assessment.
ECA is a strategic partner of the NEPAD Agency and assists in the implementation of NEPAD programme through direct technical support, analytical work, advisory services and knowledge management.
Stop the JNF campaignPress release
Protests against racist group's participation in ‘Earth Summit’
The inclusion of a workshop, on 20th June, led by the Jewish National Fund, an organisation which has been implicated in human rights abuses in Israel / Palestine, has led to protests at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Earth Summit, Rio+20).
The Jewish National Fund (JNF) exists for the purpose of obtaining Palestinian land for exclusive use by Jews. The organisation has collaborated in the eviction of Palestinians from their homes, the destruction of villages and the denial of return of refugees, frequently planting trees to conceal the remains of the houses which have been destroyed. It has established ‘parks’ and ‘forests’ as a means of making the Palestinian landscape look more European. The JNF played a crucial role in the Nakba (catastrophe) in 1947-49, which made 750,000 Palestinians into refugees who have been denied the right to return. It continues to evict Bedouin villages in the Negev desert where it is growing trees by diverting water from the Israeli occupied West Bank.
At the UN conference, the JNF, along with the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture, is offering a workshop on water conservation and land management in arid regions, as part of the 20 year anniversary of the first ‘Earth Summit’ in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
Eurig Scandrett from Stop the JNF UK commented:
Sara Kershnar of International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network said:
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Notes to editors
Stop the JNF is an international campaign established by Palestinian Civil Society, Palestine solidarity groups and International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. The campaign aims to expose and prevent the JNF’s involvement in ethnic cleansing, apartheid and Zionist colonisation in Palestine. www.stopthejnf.org . Information on how the JNF uses environmental claims to mask its participation in human rights abuses is available in ‘Greenwashing Apartheid: The Jewish National Fund’s Environmental Coverup’ athttp://stopthejnf.org/documents/JNFeBookVol4.pdf
As a contribution to Rio + 20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the JNF, in conjunction with the Israeli Department of Agriculture, are advertising a workshop “Water harvesting and afforestation as a means to rehabilitate degraded lands” on Wednesday 20th June at 4.30 – 7.30 pm (20.30 – 22.30 BST).http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&type=700&nr=70&menu=23
Contacts
Stop the JNF UK Sofiah Macleod (uk@stopthejnf.org)
Stop the JNF (environment) Eurig Scandrett (environment@stopthejnf.org)
Palestinian Grassroots Anti-apartheid Wall Campaign (Stop the Wall), Jamal Juma + (970) 598921821
Survey finds sharp rise in killings over land and forests as Rio talks open New figures collected by Global Witness on the killings of activists, journalists and community members who were defending rights to land and forests show the true, shocking extent of competition for access to natural resources. The briefing,A Hidden Crisis?, finds that over 711 people appear to have been killed in the last decade – more than one a week. In 2011 the toll was 106 people, almost doubling over the past three years. On the eve of the Rio +20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, the briefing warns of a hidden crisis in environmental protection, highlighting a pervasive culture of impunity around such violence, a lack of information, reporting or monitoring of the problem at national and international levels, and the involvement of governments and the domestic and foreign private sector in many killings. Billy Kyte, campaigner at Global Witness said, “This trend points to the increasingly fierce global battle for resources, and represents the sharpest of wake-up calls for delegates in Rio. Over one person a week is being murdered for defending rights to forests and land.” The research, drawn from consultations with communities, organisations and academics, and collation of online databases, reveals: • An alarming lack of information on killings in many countries, and no monitoring at all at the international level. These figures are likely to be a gross underestimate of the extent of the problem; • Killings have increased over the past decade, more than doubling over the past three years; • A culture of impunity pervades in this area, with few convictions brought against perpetrators; • The highest numbers of killings were found in Brazil, Colombia, the Philippines and Peru. In these and other countries (Cambodia, DRC, Indonesia), there are sustained concerns about domestic and foreign private sector involvement in the killings of defenders. As global consumption increases, the battle for access to land, forests and other natural resources is intensifying with deadly results. Contributory factors include; • Increasing agribusiness, logging, mining, hydropower initiatives on contested land and forests; • Land ownership concentrated in the hands of elites with strong business and government connections; • Large populations of relatively poor and disenfranchised citizens, who are dependent on land or forests for their livelihoods. Governments must ensure that citizens with concerns over how land and forest are managed can speak out without fear of persecution and that investment projects and land and forest deals are open and fair. This means seeking free, prior and informed consent from affected communities before deals are approved. Justice and redress must also be delivered for those killed. “The international community must stop perpetuating this vicious contest for forests and land. It has never been more important to protect the environment and it has never been more deadly”, said Kyte. |
