Photo: Mohammed al-Jabri/IRIN

A new study found that girls are particularly discriminated against in Yemen (file photo)

SANAA,  – Children of poor families, girls and children of the Akhdaam (servants) are the most discriminated against in Yemen, a new study has found.

The unpublished study, titled ‘Discrimination against Children and its Relation to the Cultural and Social Status in Yemen, was conducted by Dal Centre for Cultural and Social Studies, a local NGO, in cooperation with Save the Children Sweden.

The study was conducted over a one-year period in 12 out of the country’s 21 governorates, including four main cities (Sanaa, Aden, Taiz and Mukalla), three secondary cities (Seyoun, Zabid and Marib) and 12 villages in Hajjah, al-Mahweet, Ibb, al-Dhalei, al-Baidha and Abyan provinces.

The study surveyed 1,033 people, of whom 54 percent were children aged 6-17, and the rest were parents, adults working with children and religious and social figures.

Some 78 percent of respondents said children faced discrimination in one form or another.

Hamoud al-Awdi, head of Dal Centre, said discrimination against children “threatens social harmony’ in Yemen and added that poverty had become a major source of discrimination and contempt.

The study identified 13 categories of children that faced discrimination and 45 kinds of discrimination, ranging from sexism to sexual exploitation. Some 90 percent of respondents said the children most vulnerable to discrimination were Akhdaam (children of servants, who are mostly black), girls and poor children.

According to the study, 12 factors were responsible for discrimination against children, most notable of which were economic disparities, unwillingness of parents to educate children about discriminatory practices and illiteracy.

maj/ar/ed source.www.irinnews.org

Photo: Vincent Mayanja/IRIN

A returnee family in northern Uganda: Improved security has allowed returnees to resettle on their farms and resume productive agriculture – file photo

KAMPALA,  – Improved security in northern Uganda has allowed returnees to resettle on their farms and resume productive agriculture, despite a recent drought that threatened the harvest, an official said.

“The mood all over is that people want to regain their dignity by producing their own food and not relying any more on WFP [UN World Food Programme] for survival,” Musa Ecweru, State Minister for Disaster Preparedness, said.

“Though some areas in northern Uganda have achieved this, a dry spell has [prevented] others from getting there,” he told IRIN. “Areas in northern and north-eastern Uganda including Karamoja and Teso are experiencing acute food shortages due to a drought.”

An agreement, the minister said, had been reached with WFP to phase out general food distributions in the north.

WFP country director, Stanlake Samkange, said distributions for an estimated 214,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) were being phased out.

“Since January, we have phased out nearly 66,000 IDPs in Pader District, more than 58,000 in Amuru, nearly 60,000 in Kitgum and over 27,000 in Gulu,” Samkange said.

More former IDPs, he added, had managed to access their farmland and produce their own food. This had eased the pressure on food aid.

Vulnerable areas

However, Ecweru said a recent dry spell had compromised the food-production potential of some returnees and some areas were still vulnerable to shocks.

Indeed, other authorities issued similar warnings. “General food distribution is no longer necessary, but they still need to continue their response to the most vulnerable people,” Nobert Mao, Gulu District chairman, told IRIN.

Photo: Euan Denholm/IRIN

A returnee prepares his land in northern Uganda: The Ugandan government and the UN World Food Programme have reached an agreement to phase out general food distributions in the regioon

“We think it is necessary [but] they need to do it in such a way that we avoid the withdrawal symptoms,” he added. “Even a chain-smoker who wants to abandon his trade must be helped to achieve his or her intentions.”

Samkange said the phase-out would be monitored to avoid a relapse.

Northern Uganda was, for two decades, the theatre of civil conflict pitting the Ugandan army against the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Thousands died while up to two million people were displaced from their homes and farms.

A peace agreement has yet to be signed between the two parties, despite a two-year-old parley in the Southern Sudanese capital, Juba, but the talks are credited for the current lull.

Over the years of war, the displaced remained dependent on aid from relief agencies. “Inter-agency assessments have shown that some of these people can now sufficiently feed their families and even sell some of their produce,” Samkange said. “More IDPs will be phased out from general food distributions as conditions continue to improve.”

vm/eo/mw source.www.irinnews.org

UGANDA: Catching more than fish

Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN

Price to pay?

KAMPALA,  – Ugandan researchers are conducting the first study to find workable HIV interventions to help the country’s highly vulnerable fishing communities.

“We have limited data from research that has been done in small isolated studies among the fishing communities on the lake; we hope this study will give us national data to feed into the regional picture for HIV intervention on the entire Lake Victoria basin,” said Elizabeth Birabwa, communication officer for the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organisation (LVFO).

Official government statistics put HIV prevalence in fishing communities at 28 percent, more than four times the national average of 6.4 percent, but experts fear it could be even higher. According to the LVFO, HIV prevalence in fishing communities could be as high as 40 percent.

The results of the three-year study will feed into the five-year National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan of the Uganda AIDS Commission and the Ministry of Health, which intends to reduce the rates of infection among vulnerable groups by 40 percent by 2012.

The research is being supported by a grant of 3.5 million Euros by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnerships. It will track a cohort of 1,000 participants, and will entail screening, sensitising, and obtaining information to design effective interventions.

Fishing communities have largely been neglected in the national AIDS response, but as more fishermen die from AIDS-related illnesses, the fisheries sector has come under threat; in 2007/08, fish accounted for 12 percent of exports.

High-risk communities

AIDS educators and health professionals trying to provide medical services have found it difficult to reach many of the islands where the fishermen live, while a variety of factors expose them to greater risk.

There are many more men than women on the islands, leading to the “sharing” of women; alcohol abuse is frequent; there are relatively large amounts of disposable cash, often spent on sex; ignorance is widespread; there is a lack of access to HIV services, such as voluntary counselling and testing, and antiretroviral medication.

“You cannot imagine the level of ignorance among these communities; some people just do not know how the virus is spread – some have no questions and no answers,” Dr Pontiano Kaleebu, principal investigator of the study, told IRIN/PlusNews.

Fishermen often have sex with local women when they bring their catch to the mainland, acting as a bridge for spreading the virus to the general population.

Two hundred people have so far been enrolled in the new study, which will take place at three sites on islands and the shore of Lake Victoria in the central districts of Masaka and Entebbe. “People are enthusiastic about it and are participating actively because they feel they have been neglected,” Kaleebu said.

en/kr/kn/he source.www.irinnews.org

Dr. Orly Taitz was able to ask Chief Justice Roberts questions at the University of Idaho in front of approximately 5,000 witnesses!

My name is Orly Taitz, I am an attorney from Southern California.

I left home at three o’clock in the morning and flew and drove thousands of
miles to talk to you and ask you a question”.

Roberts seemed to be impressed by that and I continued.

“Are you aware that there is criminal activity going on in the Supreme Court of the United States.

I have submitted my case Lightfoot v Bowen to you.

You agreed to hear it in the conference of all 9 Justices on January 23.

Your clerk, Danny Bickle, on his own accord refused to forward to you an
important supplemental brief, he has hidden it from you and refused to post it on the docket. Additionally, my case was erased from the docket, completely erased one day after the inauguration, only two days before it was supposed to be heard in the conference.

Outraged citizens had to call and demand for it to be posted.

On Monday I saw Justice Scalia and he had absolutely no knowledge of my case, that was supposedly heard in conference on January 23rd.

It is inexplicable, particularly knowing that roughly half a million American
citizens have written to him and to you Justice Roberts demanding that you hear this issue of eligibility of Barack Hussein Obama aka Barry Soetoro to be the President of the United States.”

At that point I have shown to Roberts a stack of papers, that I held. Those were my pleadings and printouts that I got from WorldNetDaily. It contained your names, names of about 350,000 that signed the petition. (there were others that have written individual letters,) .

Roberts stated  “I will read your documents, I will review them. Give them to my Secret Service Agent and I will review them”. His Secret Service Agent
approached me and stated ” Give me all the documents, I promise you Justice Roberts will get them”. I had a full suitcase of documents. The agent went to look for a box, he found a large box to fit all the documents, he showed me his badge, and introduced himself as Gilbert Shaw, secret Service Agent assigned to the security of Chief Justice Roberts.

I gave him

1. Motion fo reconsideration of Lightfoot v Bowen with all the supplemental briefs.

2. Quo Warranto Easterling et al v Obama et al

3. 3300 pages of your names, people that signed WorldNetDaily petition,
demanding that the Supreme Court hear Obama elligibility case. 

4. Copy of a 164 page dossier and all the other documents sent to Eric Holder, Attorney General, describing suspected criminal activity, associated with Obama and his supporters.

It described a whole campaign of cyber crimes, intimidation, harassment,
defamation and assassination of character, impersonation of US army officer
Scott Easterling and impersonation of me, it showed screen shots of information being erased from the docket of the Supreme Court, it contained information of court cases being created, fabricated in order to commit voter fraud and sway public opinion, it contained a list of a 100 addresses for Barack Obama with numerous different social security numbers, issued all over the country and attached to those addresses.

It showed the address Obama used in Somerville Massachusetts, attached to the social security of a man who is 118 years old. It showed evidence of Obama committing perjury, lying under oath.

It had his school registration from Indonesia under the name Barry Soetoro, citizen of Indonesia, religion Muslim.

Right after this page there was a page of Obama’s registration to become an
attorney and officer of the court in Illinois, where he stated under oath that his name is Barack Hussein Obama and he had no other prior names.

It contained a report from a federal agent Steven Coffman, stating that there are numerous signs of forgery in his Selective Service Certificate.

It contained a letter from a renown expert Sandra Line, stating that there are  signs of forgery in Obama’s short version Certification of Live Birth, and original birth certificate needs to be reviewed in order to ascertain his status. It contained 130 current job positions for  Barry Obama, Barack H. Obama and Michelle Obama, that were obtained from Intellius Jobs.com. None of them were reported on Obamas’ tax returns.

All of these documents suggest possible massive tax fraud, corruption of a public official, bribery and massive campaign contributions fraud, whereby large campaign contributions, over allowed limits were reported as fictitious  positions with different companies, not surprisingly involving most mainstream media outlets.

These need to be reviewed in light of a pattern, I’ve seen previously.  For
example, as a State Senator Obama arranged for his friend Robert Blackwell from killerspin to get a grant of $320,000 of our taxpayers money for his ping-pong tournaments.

In exchange Blackwell gave Obama back roughly a third, $100,000 in the form of a salary.

Similarly Obama arranged for Chicago university hospital to get 1 million grant of our taxpayer money

and they gave him back roughly a third $357,000 in the form of a board salary for his wife Michelle for working 20 hours a week, even though Michelle was totally worthless as a board member since she had zero medical education and her law licence is on a > mandatory inactive status <

Diana, USA