He was a jolly good fellow, a hard working man and was not greedy. One time, he decided to parade hundreds of vehicles in Oslo and petrol-ed them, filling their tanks to the maximum free of charge.

After a meeting I had with him in his then Aker Brygge office in 2001, I made my conclusion after making an analysis of the man. He was one who many loved to be around him.

He was a man who showed respect to others and listened to those who had something to say.

Now after his death, his two grown up children seem to follow his footsteps especially by protecting that which he loved most – of his projects, according to the story below. May his soul rest in peace.

Below is the lifted story for our readers to go through.

Korir, Chief Editor, APN 

———–

*”The two grown children of the late high-profile entrepreneur Svein Erik Bakke say they plan to live modestly and have much lower-profile, long-term goals for the fortune he left them.

Siv Bakke Rivenes and Ulf Bakke didn’t share their father’s fondness for a jet-set life, and plan to modestly manage the fortune he left them.

Bakke, a self-made millionaire, left around NOK 300 million to his children, Ulf Bakke and Siv Bakke Rivenes. The two, stressing their pride in their working-class roots on Oslo’s east side, shared their intentions with newspaper Dagens Næringsliv on Wednesday.

“We need to pick out the projects we feel we have capacity for, that means long-term investments and ventures,” said Siv Bakke Rivenes. “We decided quickly to sell off all the short-term investments, especially speculative stakes in shares and currency exchange deals.”

She holds a master’s degree in economics and works as a finance executive within the building branch. Her brother Ulf works in marketing and runs a restaurant on Hegdehaugsveien in Oslo. Both started working at a young age in the cleaning firm their father built up, and which formed the basis for his other investments.

Svein Erik Bakke, who was found dead in his home last November, left a large portfolio including a vacation home project in Brazil, bank shares, investments in fish farming and several luxury properties in Oslo, suburban Bærum and the mountain resort areas of Geilo and Trysil.

His children sold off his new condominium at the Dr Holms Hotel in Geilo earlier this week, and netted a record sum reported to be nearly NOK 14 million.

“We’ve used a few months to get an overview of Pappa’s operations,” Ulf Bakke told Dagens Næringsliv. “Along with the overview came a sense of security. We have chosen to move forward with those aspects that we feel we can manage and that meant the most to him.”

That includes the vacation property project in Brazil and the cod-farming operation Skei Marinfisk ASA.

They’re selling off Bakke’s luxury homes. “It’s hopeless to sit with so many properties,” Siv Bakke Rivenes told Dagens Næringsliv. “We can’t use them all.”*

By Nina Berglund

*”/”*Lifted and published by African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.aftenpostenENG

*”Norwegians settled down Wednesday for the country’s annual five-day Easter vacation. Most stores and businesses were to be closed Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday, as folks flock to the mountains, the coast and other holiday retreats.

Some Norwegians are opting to stay home over the Easter holidays and take advantage of a quiet city, like here outside City Hall. PHOTO: JAN TOMAS ESPEDAL Many, though, still opt for traditional ski vacations in the Norwegian mountains, like here at Eggedal in Buskerud County. PHOTO: ERIK JOHANSEN, SCANPIX

Many Norwegians have started taking the entire week off, and Oslo was noticeably quieter as early as Monday. Hotels in the mountains are packed, as are flights to warmer climes, and many businesses (including Aftenposten) were operating with severely reduced staffing.

Police were nonetheless bracing for lots of traffic out of the city on Wednesday, and railway NSB was reporting full trains. Traffic on the main E18 highway west of Oslo was due to be disrupted throughout the entire weekend, starting at 10pm Wednesday, because of construction projects around the Lysaker intersection and train station.

Those opting to stay in the city could look forward to no shortage of parking places, cinemas that now stay open during Easter and a generally more relaxed atmosphere in town. The weather in southern Norway remains unseasonably mild, so opportunities abounded for urban walks and strolls along the fjord.

Most museums close for the long Easter weekend, but the Norwegian Folk Museum on Bygdøy was staying open every day, from 11am-3pm on Thursday and Friday and unitl 4pm on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The museum planned egg-decorating and pancake workshops for children in addition to its normal exhibits.

Boat enthusiasts have started viewing Easter as a fine time to get their pleasure craft back out on the water, and sunny weather also aided myriad boat maintenance projects around the Oslo Fjord.

While the vast majority of Norwegians still opt for traditional ski holidays in the mountains, many are using the holiday period on home remodeling projects and spring cleaning. Stores in the furniture and building business were reporting brisk sales earlier this week.

Many stores will re-open, albeit with shortened hours, on Saturday, for those failing to stock in enough provisions through Tuesday.”*

By Nina Berglund

*”/”*Lifted and published by African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.aftenpostenENG

If there was “a prize for storming buildings”, like there is Nobel Peace Prize – given for peaceful purposes, no other party in Kenya would defeat ODM-K! 

ODM-K is an expert party in storming into buildings when things does go their way.

Leaders whose methods is stormy as we now see makes interesting news and Kenyans had better watch when deciding who to give the torch to lead the country in the coming elections.

What example are these ODM-K leaders setting for the electorate? That one can simply storm a building and get what they want?

When ODM-K was not registered immediately, their patience ran out and they stormed Sheria House and used their muscles to collect a registration letter.

Now I think this guys should be given leadership because it will probably become a government that will allow any disatisfied Kenyan to storm government offices and collect what they feel is rightfully theirs.

And now again they have stormed the Electoral Commission aiming to collect election symbol.

Where will they storm next if they do not win the elections? Probably the State House in order to eject the winner if the winner is from another party.

The party seems to use muscles in everything. Imagine even storming open space like Uhuru Park to hold a prayer meeting!

Politics as we all know is a sweet game for the players and many players will not retreat even when they see they have little chances to convince the electorate.

When western countries deny visas to aspiring presidential candidates like William Ruto, Musalia Mudavadi and others, what is the west saying?

Is is possible that the west is actually telling Kenyans who they want as the next president?

Ruto was mentioned in some deals. Mudavadi was mentioned in some deals. So they cannot get visas to many western countries even if elected president. Will Kenya have a president who cannot travel to the west or one who is able to travel?

If all those mentioned are refused visas into the west, why is Raila Odinga travelling to the west often when he was also mentioned in the Kisumu Molasses affair? Is the west fooling Kenyans here by threaning with visas and discriminating Kenyan leaders?

Kenyans should study this things and may be give the west a slap on the face by even choosing Dr Murungaru or the Total Man – Mr Nico Biwott as the next president. How long is Africa going to please the west by electing leadership dictated by western countries simply because such countries fund a project here and there in Kenya?

Published by Korir, African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525

Monrovia (Liberia) The Liberian government’s corruption dragnet has claimed yet another victim in the person of Bomi County Senator Richard Devine, APA has learnt.

According to police sources Wednesday, Mr. Devine served as deputy managing director of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Corporation (LPRC) between August 2003 and January 2006, when the former speaker of Liberia’s lower house of parliament, Edwin Snowe Jr. served as managing director of the LPRC.

Mr. Devine and the former speaker have been formally charged with the theft of more than US$1 million.

A Police Special Investigative Team (SIT) comprising the Criminal Investigation Division of the Liberia National Police and the National Bureau of Investigations, allegedly uncovered recently that the two men “wilfully, wantonly, and criminally” withdrew US$1,010,500 from the accounts of the LPRC.

Reports accused Snowe and his deputy Devine for directing or approving the preparation of cheques in various United States dollar accounts and the withdrawal of the funds.

The charging of Devine brings to about eight, the number of former officials, including the former chairman of the erstwhile National Transitional Government of Liberia Charles Gyude Bryant, now on trial for stealing huge sums of money during the tenure of the transitional government between August 2003 and January 2006.

The former officials were implicated by the European Union, ECOWAS and African Union audit reports published in 2005.

Published by Korir, African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.apa

Pretoria (South Africa) President Thabo Mbeki Wednesday acknowledged that the time to find a solution to the Zimbabwe impasse was running out.

”This is a matter that all of us must approach with great seriousness because the pain that is felt by the people of Zimbabwe is the pain that we feel, and it is really our task to walk together with them to resolve the problems that they face,” Mbeki said.

Speaking at a session of the National House of Traditional Leaders in Pretoria, Mbeki said the Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi and the director-general in the Presidency, Frank Chikane, were part of a delegation that met with Zimbabwean opposition leaders Tendai Biti, general secretary of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Welshman Ncube, general secretary of a faction that split from the MDC, on Tuesday.

Mbeki indicated that the facilitation process should be speeded up in order to ensure free and fair elections next year. “In reality, we don’t have much time, because normally those elections in Zimbabwe take place in March. So that means that Zimbabweans probably have 11 months to do everything that is necessary to ensure that those elections are free and fair and that the outcome is not contested by anybody.”

President Mbeki, who has been criticised for his “quiet diplomacy” strategy towards Zimbabwe, said he was pleased that both the ruling Zanu-PF of Zimbabwe and the opposition had welcomed the decision by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders in Tanzania last week to appoint him as a facilitator.

Published by Korir, African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.apa

Lilongwe (Malawi) Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC), a human rights umbrella body in Malawi has accused the heads of state of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) during their recent summit in Tanzania last of shielding their Zimbabwean colleague, Robert Mugabe.

A senior official of HRCC, MacDonald Sembereka told journalists in Lilongwe Wednesday that HRCC is saddened by the decision of the SADC leaders to back the President Mugabe instead of negotiating the way forward for political and economic stability in Zimbabwe.

“We feel the stand taken by our leaders as problematic and worrisome because we wanted the crisis to end as soon as possible and make the Zimbabweans free from the political and economic hardship they are going through,” he said.

He added that the intervention to be carried out by the South African President Thabo Mbeki is not enough to end the crisis in Zimbabwe because South Africa alone cannot handle the situation as all along it has been quite on the Zimbabwe issue.

However, Mbeki was given the mandate by the SADC heads of state at the end of their extra-ordinary summit to take a lead in discussing the political situation in Zimbabwe.

Published by Korir, African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.apa

Monrovia (Liberia) The lower house of the Liberian Parliament has cleared three persons to contest on Thursday the position of speaker made vacant following the resignation last February of the former incumbent Edwin Melvin Snowe.

Those contesting for the post are : Dr. Edward Forh of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), Alex Tyler of the Liberian Action Party and Armah Sarnoh of the Liberty Party.

In line with the rules of the lower house, the three candidates on Tuesday relinquished any other positions they held in the house before they threw their hats in the race.

Forh served as chairman of the House Committee on State Enterprises and Public Autonomous Agencies, while Tyler was Chairman of the House Ways, Means, Finance and Budget Committee, and Sarnor as Chairman on the Judiciary Committee.

About 60 members of the House of Representatives are scheduled to cast their votes.

Tyler, who hails from western Bomi, the home county of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is an accountant by profession, while Sarnor, who hails from north-western Gbarpolu County, is a student at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law at the University of Liberia.

Dr. Forh is a former professor and former president of the African Methodist Episcopal University in Monrovia.

Published by Korir, African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525 source.apa

Dakar (Senegal) Libyan leader, Colonel Mouammar Khadafi, Wednesday reiterated his call in Dakar, Senegal, for Africa to be united and press the Western countries to pay reparations, arguing that the latter built their countries on resources they exploited from former colonies.

“Last year, I called on people to organise themselves and demand for reparations. I continue to remind people that Europeans owe us reparations,” the Guide of the Libyan Revolution insisted at the end of a civilian and military parade marking the 47th Independence anniversary of Senegal.

Khadafi said independence will only be final and effective when Africans could unite and set up the United States of Africa.

As guest of honour of Senegal’s Independence Day celebrations, he also tackled the immigration issue, stressing that Europe should not speak about ‘legality’ when it comes to the issue, arguing that as former colonisers, « they had not bother themselves with legal considerations when they came to plunder our resources”.

Hence, Khadafi rejected the concept of illegal immigration, saying “if they do not want to bring back what they took from us, we will go to look for it in their countries.”

Published by Korir, African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 +47 6300 2525 source.apa