Mother Child Portrait While John Kerry Waves

One million babies are alive today because their HIV-infected mothers received medication to prevent them from transmitting the virus to their infants. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry noted that landmark June 18 in a State Department ceremony recognizing the 10th anniversary of the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which launched large-scale U.S. assistance for treatment and care of people with HIV/AIDS.

With distribution of assistance exceeding $37 billion, PEPFAR is the largest and most successful foreign assistance program ever adopted, Kerry said.

“One million babies — like Tatu’s daughter Faith — can grow up happy and healthy, go to school, realize their dreams, break out of this cycle, maybe even have sons and daughters of their own free from the burden and the fear of HIV,” Kerry said.

Tatu Msangi, a nursing officer at a medical center in Tanzania who attended the anniversary ceremony, had discovered in 2004 she was both pregnant and HIV-positive. Though shocked and fearful, Msangi received the drugs that prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and gave birth to a healthy daughter she named Faith.

“My daughter Faith is all the proof you need that an AIDS-free generation is possible,” Msangi told the audience, many of whom have vivid memories and their own stories to tell about the AIDS timeline and implementation of PEPFAR.

When the U.S. Congress approved PEPFAR funding, more than 30 million people worldwide were infected and, in the developing world, only a small fraction were receiving treatment. Some experts believed the law was too late, Kerry said.

“Today a disease that seemed unstoppable is in retreat,” Kerry said. He cited supporting statistics: New HIV infections have declined by 20 percent, the number of deaths is down one-third in Africa, and 8 million people are receiving drugs that can keep the virus in check.
Kerry said 13 nations have now reached the “tipping point,” where the number of people receiving treatment exceeds the number of newly infected people. That means the virus is under control, and in decline. That means that progressing to the birth of a generation without AIDS is possible, he said.

With U.S. assistance under the PEPFAR program, Namibian Minister of Health Richard Nehabi Kamwi said, his country has passed the tipping point. With AIDS in decline, he said, Namibia is also making enormous progress overcoming the diseases that are so often associated with HIV infection.

“We are on the verge of malaria elimination, working stringently towards TB elimination,” Kamwi said at the State Department ceremony. “And with the strength of our global partnership, Namibia may be the first country on the African continent to eliminate HIV transmission.”

Providing funding for large deliveries of AIDS drugs was only one component of PEPFAR activities. The program also worked to establish the clinics, the health care workforce, the laboratories and other facilities that could provide not just AIDS care, but a broader level of overall health care than had been available before. In six countries where assistance has been most intense, Global AIDS Ambassador Eric Goosby said, significant health care improvements have been achieved.

“We’ve seen reductions in maternal-child, and TB-related mortality, dramatic reductions,” Goosby said. “We’ve seen increased use of antenatal care and wider availability of safe blood [for transfusion].”

Both Goosby and Kerry acknowledged that there is more to do, more people who need medicine, and more places that need hospitals. But Kerry said the PEPFAR successes should provide inspiration to move forward, “to know that we can do the remarkable, we can find solutions to what seems to be unsolvable, we can overcome the insurmountable, and we can leave politics and ideology at the wayside in order to choose life.”

Kerry extended thanks to many lawmakers, activists and medical experts who contributed to the PEPFAR mission. Goosby called them “AIDS heroes” and announced that his office is launching an annual program to recognize people who have made great contributions to the effort to combat the disease and improve global health. The first individuals to receive the honor will be named on World AIDS Day December 1.
Source: U.S. State Department

Borbor Davis, with his wife Maggie, in family photo.

A Liberian immigrant from Darby Borough who died working at a Salvation Army store that collapsed in Philadelphia is being remembered as a hardworking man and devoted husband.

A stepdaughter confirms that 68-year-old Borbor Davis is among the six people killed in the demolition accident Wednesday.

Stepdaughter Maryann M. Mason says Davis was married to her mother for several years. She says “they looked so good together.”

And she says Davis “loved my mom so much.”

City officials say Davis was killed along with five women when an adjacent wall from a taller building being demolished next door crumbled onto the store, trapping Salvation Army workers and customers in piles of debris.

Mason says Davis was from Monrovia, Liberia. She says he loved working at the thrift shop.
Source: Daily Times

Syrian Refugee Women in Refugee Camp

The number of refugees fleeing their homes reached an almost 20-year high in 2012, according to a report on global trends issued June 19 by the U.N. Refugee Agency, UNHCR. More than 45.2 million people were displaced at the end of 2012, the highest level since 1994.

A U.S. State Department official in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) said the UNHCR findings represent an “unprecedented number of refugee crises.”

“In the last year, we’ve witnessed major outflows of refugees from Syria, Mali, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo,” said Simon Henshaw, PRM’s principal deputy assistant secretary.

Henshaw’s remarks and the UNHCR report were both released in recognition of World Refugee Day June 20, an occasion the United Nations has designated to pay tribute to the courage and determination of people who search for safety after being forced from their homes as a result of violence, war or environmental crisis.

In collaboration with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the international community, the United States plays a leading role, Henshaw said, in providing short-term humanitarian assistance for refugees and in offering resettlement opportunities when returning home becomes a lost option for refugee families.

The UNHCR report found that the 2012 refugee total was an almost 3 million increase from 2011. Among these millions, people are in varying circumstances. Some are refugees who have crossed an international border. Some are internally displaced while still in their homeland. Some seek asylum from some form of harm at home.

War is the predominant cause of this unprecedented level of refugee movement. About 55 percent of the total flee armed conflict in just five nations: Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Sudan.

“These truly are alarming numbers,” said High Commissioner António Guterres. “They reflect individual suffering on a huge scale and they reflect the difficulties of the international community in preventing conflicts and promoting timely solutions for them.”
Afghanistan is the homeland of more refugees than any other single country, as it has been for more than 30 years of conflict. Almost 2.6 million refugees of 2012 are Afghan by birth.

The two-year-old conflict in Syria and the surging tide of refugees it has created — 1.6 million — have been the source of mounting international concern. The United States has responded with substantial assistance to meet the humanitarian needs of displaced Syrians who have found their way to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt.

At the G8 summit in Northern Ireland, President Obama announced an additional commitment of $300 million to be devoted to food, shelter and medical care. Since 2011, the United States has donated $815 million to relieve suffering for the innocent Syrian victims of the conflict between the government and rebel forces.

The aid will be distributed for assistance in neighboring nations hosting refugees, but $128 million of the aid infusion announced June 17 will support the needs of people internally displaced in Syria. Increasing health and emergency capabilities and additional food aid are priorities, according to a White House fact sheet issued with the announcement.

Whether the internally displaced and the refugees from Syria are able to find their way home eventually is largely unknown right now, so no broad plans for resettlement are underway. By international protocol, UNHCR takes the lead in making those decisions, U.S. officials say.

At this point, PRM Deputy Director of Admissions Kelly Gauger says UNHCR has designated about 2,000 Syrians who may go into resettlement programs. In keeping with established patterns, she says, it’s likely about half of those would come to the United States.

The United States accepts more refugees for resettlement than any of the other 26 nations who do so worldwide, about 70,000 per year. Australia and Canada are the second and third in offering new homes for the homeless, accepting about 12,000 and 10,000 respectively, Gauger said.

Because of the special circumstances of the Iraq war, the United States created a special resettlement program for Iraqis who had worked with the American forces. About 86,000 have found homes in the United States since 2007.
Source: U.S State Department

Human Rights Watch Logo

The Sierra Leone authorities should open a criminal investigation of a suspected arms supplier for his alleged involvement in international crimes during Sierra Leone’s civil war, Human Rights Watch said today.

This would be Sierra Leone’s first purely domestic prosecution in relation to war crimes or crimes against humanity committed during its 11-year armed conflict, which ended in 2002.

Ibrahim Bah, also known as Ibrahim Balde, is a Senegalese national who allegedly provided arms and materiel to the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), according to a United Nations panel of experts and the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone. The RUF committed widespread and systematic abuses against civilians characterized by murder, mutilation, amputation, torture, rape, and forced abductions during the war.

“Ibrahim Bah was allegedly involved in arming and supporting Sierra Leone’s rebels, who committed massive atrocities during the country’s 11-year civil conflict,” said Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Now that Bah has been located in Freetown, Sierra Leone authorities should promptly open a criminal investigation.”

Bah has been subject to a UN-imposed travel ban since 2004 for his alleged role in illegal arms and diamond dealing and for supporting former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s effort to destabilize Sierra Leone. He was believed to be living in Burkina Faso, but a new report issued by a UN panel of experts on May 31, 2013, found that Bah has been living in Sierra Leone since 2008.

The UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone found that Bah was a close associate of Taylor, who was convicted by the court in 2012 for his role in providing arms and other assistance to the rebels. Taylor’s conviction is on appeal. From 2002 to 2009, the Special Court tried and convicted three former leaders of the RUF rebels, three former leaders of the rebel Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, and two former members of a pro-government civil defense militia, in addition to Taylor.

The Sierra Leone government and the UN established the hybrid international-national court, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, in 2002 to prosecute those “bearing the greatest responsibility” for crimes committed during the conflict. However, the tribunal is winding down operations. One of the hoped-for legacies of the Special Court is that it has helped build capacity in Sierra Leone to prosecute international crimes domestically, including those committed during Sierra Leone’s armed conflict. Numerous Sierra Leoneans have worked as investigators, prosecutors, and defense counsel at the court.

“The Special Court has made a vital contribution, but its work should not be the end of the road,” Dufka said. “Domestic cases are also needed to more fully ensure justice for the gravest crimes committed during Sierra Leone’s war.”

Sierra Leone’s domestic criminal code lacks some definitions of serious crimes in violation of international law, and laws incorporating these crimes should be adopted. However, ordinary crimes such as rape and murder that underlie such crimes are available under the domestic code.

“Sierra Leone has taken major steps over the past decade to promote justice for serious crimes committed during its horrific civil war and to build respect for the rule of law,” Dufka said. “Investigating Bah for possible criminal prosecution would be an important way to build on this progress.”

President Obama and his girls

Hi, everybody. This Sunday is Father’s Day, and so I wanted to take a moment to talk about the most important job many of us will ever have – and that’s being a dad.

Today we’re blessed to live in a world where technology allows us to connect instantly with just about anyone on the planet. But no matter how advanced we get, there will never be a substitute for the love and support and, most importantly, the presence of a parent in a child’s life. And in many ways, that’s uniquely true for fathers.

I never really knew my own father. I was raised by a single mom and two wonderful grandparents who made incredible sacrifices for me. And there are single parents all across the country who do a heroic job raising terrific kids. But I still wish I had a dad who was not only around, but involved; another role model to teach me what my mom did her best to instill – values like hard work and integrity; responsibility and delayed gratification – all the things that give a child the foundation to envision a brighter future for themselves.

That’s why I try every day to be for Michelle and my girls what my father was not for my mother and me. And I’ve met plenty of other people – dads and uncles and men without a family connection – who are trying to break the cycle and give more of our young people a strong male role model.

Being a good parent – whether you’re gay or straight; a foster parent or a grandparent – isn’t easy. It demands your constant attention, frequent sacrifice, and a healthy dose of patience. And nobody’s perfect. To this day, I’m still figuring out how to be a better husband to my wife and father to my kids.

And I want to do what I can as President to encourage marriage and strong families. We should reform our child support laws to get more men working and engaged with their children. And my Administration will continue to work with the faith and other community organizations, as well as businesses, on a campaign to encourage strong parenting and fatherhood.

Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned along the way, it’s that all our personal successes shine a little less brightly if we fail at family. That’s what matters most. When I look back on my life, I won’t be thinking about any particular legislation I passed or policy I promoted. I’ll be thinking about Michelle, and the journey we’ve been on together. I’ll be thinking about Sasha’s dance recitals and Malia’s tennis matches – about the conversations we’ve had and the quiet moments we’ve shared. I’ll be thinking about whether I did right by them, and whether they knew, every day, just how much they were loved.

That’s what I think being a father is all about. And if we can do our best to be a source of comfort and encouragement to our kids; if we can show them unconditional love and help them grow into the people they were meant to be; then we will have succeeded.
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, and have a great weekend.
Source: White House

Venue where G8 Leaders will convene

Coupled with economic growth, the world leaders are expected to discuss expansion of trans-Atlantic trade and economic development for less-developed regions of the world, says Caroline Atkinson, senior director for international economic issues on the National Security Staff.

Leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States will meet at Lough Erne outside Belfast, Northern Ireland June 17-18. The Lough Erne meetings mark President Obama’s fifth G8 Summit. The eight major economies account for approximately 50 percent of the world’s global gross domestic product, which measures the total worth of nations.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is hosting the 2013 summit. Each year, one of the eight nations hosts the summit and, following nearly yearlong consultations with the other leaders, sets the summit agenda.

As was the case at the 2012 Camp David summit, “We expect that G8 leaders will express a consensus that growth and jobs are a top priority,” Atkinson said at a June 14 White House press briefing. And after a session on international counterterrorism, Atkinson said, a session among the leaders will focus on trade, tax and transparency issues in the G8 countries.
During the 2012 summit, President Obama returned the meetings to a “small, intimate, action-oriented event” among the immediate group of leaders, and Prime Minister Cameron wanted to take a similar approach at Lough Erne, Atkinson said.

“On trade, the summit will take place just as we’re concluding our consultation period here with Congress on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership,” Atkinson told journalists. “On taxes, we expect the G8 to make important progress on the issues both of illegal tax evasion and the kind of legal tax avoidance that companies, when they use countries’ loopholes, manage to shift their profits to no- or low-tax jurisdictions.”

Four years ago, President Obama proposed legislation that would crack down on illegal tax evasion by increasing disclosure requirements for individuals and financial institutions, she said. Congress passed legislation in 2010 to block illegal tax evasion and the U.S. Treasury has been working with other governments to ensure that tax evasion is detected and punished, she added.

Atkinson said summit leaders are expected to work to expand the use of these standards and improve the ability of tax authorities and law enforcement to identify firms that use shell companies to hide tax liabilities. She also said that the president will focus on international efforts to reduce what now is legal tax avoidance where companies use tax loopholes to reduce their tax liability.

The G8 leaders also will meet African leaders and others along and heads of international organizations to talk about development, a key component of Prime Minister Cameron’s G8 agenda this year, Atkinson said.

There will also be a discussion on the extractive industries sector and transparency. Transparency proposals would require companies to disclose payments they make to governments in the extractive sector, Atkinson said. The United States was the first nation to require companies to disclose payments to governments in the extractive sector, she said. The extractive sector mines raw materials from the earth for use in the production of consumer goods worldwide.
Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told journalists at the briefing that the president leaves Washington late on June 16 and arrives in Belfast early on June 17. The president will deliver a speech at the Belfast Waterfront Convention Center focused on U.S. support for the peace process in Northern Ireland and also address the development of the economy and society, Rhodes said.

Following the speech, the president joins other G8 leaders for the first session of the summit at Lough Erne. Then Obama will have a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which will be their first bilateral meeting since the Group of 20 Summit in Mexico in 2012.
“They clearly have a broad agenda to discuss,” Rhodes said. “I would only add that, as is often the case at these meetings, we’d anticipate that the president will have an opportunity to see other leaders on the margins of the G8 throughout the course of the day.”

The agenda for the president and the other G8 leaders will include a wide range of security issues — such as the ongoing civil conflict in Syria, the security mission in Afghanistan, Iran’s nuclear weapons development program, and the Middle East peace process, Rhodes said.
After the summit concludes, Obama will travel to Berlin June 18 for meetings with German officials and Chancellor Angela Merkel through June 19, he said.

First lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha will accompany the president, and will largely have a separate schedule that includes a visit to Trinity College in Dublin and to introduce the president to local students while in Belfast, Rhodes said. In Berlin, the first lady and daughters also have a full schedule of separate events.

Source: U.S. State Department

Uganda Players celebrate their 1-0 Win Against Liberia

Reports have it that Liberia-the national team, Lone Stars and delegation that flew into Kampala on June 6th are enraged over Chadian referee, Adam Cordier‘s handling of the Cranes- Stars match at Mandela Namboole Stadium in Kampala a fortnight ago.

This is a match, according to Ugandan media reports, that Liberia dominated from start to finish with most of the game being played in the Cranes’ half of the field.

John Vianney Nsimbe, writing in The Observer calls the Liberian players’ protests “somewhat contemptuous,” but he gives in to journalistic nerves when he admits Liberia were the better team. The largely allied Kampala football reporters under reported the Stars-Cranes match the whole of Saturday, June 8th , when the game was played so I kept looking for Nsimbe story, and there it was to a delight on Sunday June 9 at 7:10 Greenish Mean Time(GMT), a day later after the match and he was honest. He is probably the best football reporter in all of Kampala. [It was on the strength of his writings and recommendation that 'Micho' was hired].

He said “Cranes looked so timid in approach and because of that, they failed to dictate the course of the game.” He goes on to say, “Liberia played much of the game as though they were the home team. This wasn’t in small part to the fact that they, from the look of it, had more ball possession, much of which they used in Cranes’ own half. They easily passed the ball around and moved off it expertly although they just failed to create any significant scoring chances.”

Says Nsimbe of the Lone Stars-Cranes game, “One of the struggles from this match was picking out a player with an award-winning display, matters aren’t helped either by the fact that Liberia played the better football than Uganda,” despite Liberian best forward Francis Doe, and a really reliable defender Teah Dennis missing from the match. There were lots of hurt feelings from the game, judging from Liberia’s reaction.

Liberia felt they were undone by the referee, and the feelings among the Liberian players were mutual, their anger was unhidden; it was passionate enough to send the point home. So furious was Omega Roberts particularly whose stellar performance was noted and even George Weah, the former 1995 world player who usually keeps his cool, was unhappy.

“After the final whistle,” a Nigerian paper said “Weah followed the referee from Chad, Adam Cordier, as he walked to the changing rooms and tried to attack him only to be stopped by security. Weah, who was the leader of delegation of the Liberia contingent, was reportedly not amused by the level of officiating.”

And that’s news right there, if you know anything about news! A former World Player, European Player and African player of the century goes out of his way, in a show of protest, to the game he respects and contributed so much to show public anger. The officiating must have been bad, so furious was Weah that he wants to attack a referee. And that is not Weah.

He is a disciplined footballer. Another report said “Upon the final whistle, Liberia’s giant forward Patrick Wleh confronted the referee about what he classified as biased officiating against his team. This didn’t stop here.

In the post-match press conference, Liberia’s Captain, Anthony Laffor continued to vent his anger towards the referee whom he said just didn’t allow them to get into Uganda’s penalty area.” Or, where they did, the referee ignored the fouls committed against them.

It is interestingly, the Liberian players are not known for protesting frivolously when they lose matches, as the Kampala contest shows. Recently, Liberia lost 3-1 away, at the hands of Senegal, after putting their noses ahead first in the early second minutes through a Francis Forkey Doe clinical finish. They took the defeat graciously and came home respectable sportsmen. Again, in what was a massive lost to the Super Eagles last year; the Liberian Lone Stars took a 6-1 whipping at the hands of Nigeria in Calabar, in an Afcons qualifications that saw Nigeria finally through to South Africa, they would eventually go on and win the continental title. Of course they never said a word about the loss and of being cheated. Liberia quietly replaced their coach, Kaetu Smith, which saw Jericho Nagbe took charge.

“Uganda was lucky enough to have gotten on the score sheet as early as the fifth minute; the flank from which the goal came through Emmanuel Okwi cross was left vulnerable by Teah Dennis absence, says a member of the Lone Stars coaching staff. He said, however, “take nothing away from the Ugandans.”

George Weah is not a sour loser and complainer, even as Lone Stars’ captain and an exceptional maestro for AC Milan, Monaco, and Chelsea, he never protested giddily. Among the many awards he capped, was the FIFA FAIR PLAY AWARD, given to world class players who respect the game and their opponents. He is not known for unreasonable complaints when his teams are defeated…so what really happened in Kampala for which this exceptionally gifted former African and world football giant went out of his way to confront a Chadian referee?

Cafonline.com: Where do you think it went wrong considering you had the upper hand? Laffor: It is part of football, sometimes not always the best side which wins.

“By all accounts, the lads put up a respectable performance away to Uganda. They dominated plays and ball possession, and played hard for the entire ninety minutes with no signs of giving up.” said Joe Baysah. Baysah said two clear penalty breaks were denied Liberia. He however went ahead to chastise Liberian players for their attitude which he calls “unbecoming.”

These games are very important, national hopes and pride hang on them, and so much is usually invested in these encounters, preparations take months. Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) must investigate the matter, and if Liberian players were complaining un-necessarily then they must be punished and if Adam Cordier is found liable he must be sanctioned. If Liberia truly believe they were cheated by the whistle in Kampala, then they must take up the matter with FIFA.

It is just but appropriate, perhaps George Weah, who so knows the game, might t not know what he is talking about when he followed Adam Cordier in the belle of the stadium where the dressing rooms are located. I doubt so though, that’s not in his character to protest flippantly, it’s your call.

Wesseh is a freelance writer

Mother and Child at Nutrition Program

The United States plans to spend $9 billion on nutrition activities through 2014, says U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah.

The funds will accelerate activities aimed at reducing child stunting by 20 percent by 2018 in the 19 low-resource countries supported by Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative.

“Ensuring that a child receives adequate nutrition during the critical 1,000-day window from pregnancy to a child’s second birthday can yield dividends for a lifetime,” Shah said June 10 at a Washington event co-hosted by Bread for the World Institute and Concern Worldwide. Global nutrition has been a U.S. priority linking its Global Health Initiative and Feed the Future. Under-nutrition leads to more child deaths every year than any other cause, he said.

“To ensure that every child thrives,” then–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin launched the global 1,000 Days Partnership in 2010, Shah noted. Ireland’s Minister of Trade and Development Joe Costello also spoke at the event, called “Sustaining Political Commitments to Scaling Up Nutrition.”

Shah praised Bread for the World Institute and Concern Worldwide for their commitment to ending hunger, for helping to get science, research and agriculture on countries’ development agendas, and for supporting a more flexible approach to delivering food aid. The approach announced earlier in 2013 by President Obama would include vouchers to purchase food in areas where U.S. food commodities cannot be distributed, he said.

Shah said that since 2011, the United States has more than doubled its spending on agricultural research and launched programs to help innovations reach smallholder farmers. In 2012, he said, Feed the Future helped 7 million farmers adopt improved technologies or management practices that helped them produce higher yields and earn higher incomes.

The U.S. spending recently was met by a pledge of $750 million in private funds for nutrition. Nongovernmental groups associated with the U.S. umbrella group Interaction made the pledge, Shah said.

He previewed Feed the Future’s second annual report, to be released later in June. The report will highlight the program’s system for gathering and disseminating “timely, accurate data that measures everything from household income to the participation of women to the prevalence of stunting,” he said.

He said one of the most significant challenges that remain is continued underinvestment in agriculture by some countries, particularly “in the infrastructure that connects farmers to their markets.”

The event followed Shah’s June 8 participation in a high-level meeting in London during which he signed the Global Nutrition for Growth Compact, with the goals of reaching 500 million pregnant women and children under age 2 by 2020, averting 20 million cases of child stunting by the same year, and preventing 1.7 million deaths through increased breast-feeding, zinc supplements and more treatment of severe, acute malnutrition.

At that meeting, Shah and the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for International Development Justine Greening launched the Global Open Data Initiative for Agriculture and Nutrition to support international partners in efforts to make agriculture and nutrition data available to the public.

“By embracing high-impact partnerships, science and technology, we can achieve progress simply unimaginable in the past, including the end of extreme poverty, widespread hunger and chronic malnutrition,” Shah said.

Nutrition and agricultural development are likely to be discussed at a meeting of the Group of Eight major economies hosted by the United Kingdom June 17–18 in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.

Source: U.S.State Department

Equal Pay

“It’s time to close that gap,” said President Obama at a June 10 White House event marking the anniversary of the Equal Pay Act.

Noting that women are now the primary source of income for nearly 40 percent of U.S. families, Obama said equal pay for men and women is not just a fairness issue but an economic issue. Families as well as the overall economy, he said, suffer when women are shortchanged on their pay.

To help close the pay gap, the Obama administration has established the White House Council on Women and Girls and a National Equal Pay Task Force to help crack down on violations of equal pay laws. The first bill Obama signed as president was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which essentially gave women workers more time to file a lawsuit against employers when they discover pay discrimination.

“I want every child to grow up knowing that a woman’s hard work is valued and rewarded just as much as any man’s,” Obama said.

The Lone Stars of Liberia

Liberia goes to Kampala for the 2014 Brazil World Cup qualifier with a 32- man team headed by George Weah as the curtains come off the Kampala Namboole Stadium, with the Cranes and their opponents slotting it out in a tango. Reports say it is a crucial tie for the two countries.

Liberia will be aiming to win at Namboole to prove that West African football (soccer) is still the dominant football on the continent and to improve on its previous win, while Uganda will be looking to prevail under the much heralded Serbian Coach Milutin “Micho” Sredojevi?, and a talented Uganda team that have won four consecutive Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations [CECAFA] trophies from 2008-2012 under the guidance of Bobby Williamson, the Scotsman who got the boot for falling on the sword in Liberia at the Monrovia Sports complex, when the Cranes lost 2-0 in March this year.

Liberia currently sits second place in group J that sees Senegal atop the log with five points while Angola and Uganda come second and third respectively. The Lone Stars early departure for Kampala this week shows the team goes to East Africa to acclimatize itself with the local weather and the training facilities there, as the duel with the Cranes comes full circle this weekend.

Liberia will be missing key forward Francis Forkey Doe, who pulled out of the Uganda clash due to last minute illness, and defender Teah Dennis who went missing while on a tryout for DC United few weeks ago in the United States. Both teams last week played friendlies to Iraq in Baghdad, which saw Liberia winning 1-0 and Uganda losing 3-0 in Tripoli, Libya.

A Sports analyst says Uganda home record is really good, and that Liberia fighting to steal a win at Namboole will be tricky, in what has been described as a difficult hunting ground. But coach Jericho Nagbe is confident that his charges are up for the battle in the Cranes backyard, saying “my eye is set on success in Kampala, we are going for the maximum [three] points. My players are focused and prepared to do the job; all of them are in top shape which is good for the away fight”.

The Stars goes to Kampala in what will be a thorny match and a hostile territory with the home fans expected to truck to the 45 thousand capacity filled stadium to cheer their beloved Cranes. The much anticipated match it’s a mêlée that will prove if George Weah was right as he always is when it comes to football [they don’t call him legend for nothing] by recommending Frank Jericho Nagbe and deputy Thomas Kojo for the illustrious Liberia Lone Stars coaching positions.

Liberian Team lineup: Nathaniel Sherman, Mulbah Urey, James Galley, Solomon Wesseh, Francis Jallabah, Aloysius Simujila, Alex Karmo, Herron Berrian, Anthony Laffor, Theo Lewis weeks, Omega Roberts, Tonia Tisdell, Ansu Toure, Alseny Keita, Patrick Wleh, Boakai Foday, Patrick Gerhardt, Sekou Jabateh Oliseh and Zah Kranger

Hawa Wesseh is a freelance Journalist and writes principally for The Liberian Listener