The EU joins in the call for Mugabe’s resignation

The European Union has joined the call for President Robert Mugabe to step down after 28 years ruling Zimbabwe, Reuters reports.

“I think the moment has arrived to put all the pressure for Mugabe to step down,” said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana before a meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels.

“I say today that President Mugabe must go. Zimbabwe has suffered enough, “French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said in a speech. The United States and Britain have made similar calls.

The EU’s call comes hours after Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga termed, Mugabe’s rule a “vile dictatorship” that must be stopped, says Standard newspaper.

Adding that the crisis in Zimbabwe has reached a point where other African States can no longer turn a blind eye.

The actual situation

Basic foodstuffs are running out and a cholera epidemic has killed at least 575 people, infected thousands spreading to South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana and Zambia, Reuters reports.

Prices are doubling every 24 hours and the 100 million Zimbabwean dollars a day limit for bank withdrawals is only enough to buy three loaves of bread, says Reuters.

In addition, the water system has collapsed, forcing people to drink from contaminated wells and streams.

The health system is incapable of coping with the cholera epidemic. The water system has collapsed, forcing people to drink from contaminated wells and streams, BBC reports.

Various leaders, one call

Mr. Odinga urged the African Union on Sunday to hold an emergency summit to formulate a resolution to send troops into Zimbabwe to deal with the crisis, Standard says.

Botswanan Foreign Minister Phandu Skelemani and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel laureate, have also called for Mugabe’s removal says Standard.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said international intervention was needed because of the health emergency, Reuters reports.

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement issued by the Elders, a group of prominent figures that includes ex-US President Jimmy Carter and Tutu that there was “bitter disappointment in the current leadership, Standard reports.”

“There is a crying need for change in Zimbabwe,” Britain’s foreign minister, David Miliband, said in Brussels, Reuters reports.

Where to die: that is the question

According to a report published by the National Audit Office the UK Department of Health and the NHS are failing to meet the basic needs of people approaching the end of life.

“Death comes equally to us all, and makes us all equal when it comes”, said John Donne. Perhaps he was wrong.

Findings of an extensive research published on 24 November 2008 by the National Audit Office showed that although the majority of people (between 56 and 74 per cent) express a  preference to die at home or in a hospice, only 35 is enabled to do so.

There are widespread variations and inequalities across the country in the access to end of life care and resources, according to The Times.

Some Primary Care Trusts spend £ 150 per person on palliative services to be delivered at home, whereas others spent up to £1700 per person in 2007.

A lack of services in the community leads to terminally ill patients being unnecessarily admitted to hospital against their wishes.

Reasons why

Speaking to Bury The Lead, Tom McBride, lead auditor on the NAO project, tried to explain which areas in the service delivered are poor and could be improved.

“I think there’s a poor coordination of services. There’s not much joined-up work between local authorities and primary care trusts. There a lack of training for many clinicians working in hospital, both doctors and nurses, like the training they need to identify people approaching the end of life and to identify whether they should more appropriately cared for”.

Moreover, if on the one hand patients are not allowed to die at home as they desire, on the other hand there are many who are not enabled to even express what they really prefer.

A good communication between patients and doctors should be the priority, and all clinicians should be encouraged to talk about end of life choices.

Emily Sam, Deputy Director of Policy Development at the National Council of Palliative Care, when asked about the possible strategies to improve the situation of terminally ill patients said “one by talking about it, which means that people have the chance to say where they  want to die, that means care be put into place ready for them at home, if that’s what they want. And it means that professional teams need to be working closely together across health and social care to enable that. But the main thing is about planning and helping people communicate their wishes earlier on”.

Click here for a background

Dutch authorities to clean up Amsterdam’s red district

 

For 700 years the red district in Amsterdam has been really popular.  Now, the Dutch authorities plan to reduce the brothels, sex shops and marijuana cafe to reduce organized crime in the city centre published the BBC online on Satuday.

 A year ago, council officials gave the sex industry a warning that they were going to close some brothels. A year later, half of them are about to be closed together with half of the 76 coffee shops.

“I would not like my country to be famous for drugs and prostitutes.”

Lucia Mallagray Stampa, stuent

The objective of the city deputy mayor is to stop Amsterdam being “free zone” for criminals. To do so, Officials have set aside some £33m to attract hotels, boutiques, galleries and restaurants to the area.

“I think is going to be really difficult. Drugs and prostitution bring a lot of money to the city so if they try to stop it they will have problem.” thinks Lucia Mallagray Stampa, studying in London and who has already visited once Amsterdam.

If this plan comes to an end, the number of brothels, where prostitute are offering themselves behind windows, will go from 482 to 243, a council spokesman said.

The student adds “A lot of people will loose their jobs, which is bad and it is not good for Amsterdam because it means they will have a lower growth. But on the other hand, it  is good cause young people will be avoiding doing drugs”.

The city authorities say that those businesses are not the only ones that contribute to the city center decline. Peep shows, sex shows, mini-supermakets, phone and souvenir shops will also be shut down. For them, they serve as a cover for organized crime such as drug or the traffic of women.

“Money laundering, extortion and human trafficking are things you do not see on the surface but they are hurting people and the city. We want to fight this,” said Deputy Mayor Lodewijk Asscher. He adds “We can still have sex and drugs but in a way that shows the city is in control.”

 Amsterdam seen as a tolerant and crazy place

Prostitutes and marijuana are not the only things someone can find in the red district. Before the national ban few days ago, it was possible to buy “magic mushrooms” in shops known as Smart Shops.

Critics say that this ban and the new plan are the example of a hardening of the traditional Dutch vision of social issues including prostitution and soft drug use. They add as well that it goes much further than it was expected.

Behind critics, Mr Asscher defends himself, saying that the changes are more coherent with Amsterdam’s image as a “tolerant and crazy place rather than a free zone for criminal”.

His goal is to limit prostitution to only two areas of the district with a total of around 200 windows and keep 30 coffee shops which still something that “It is impossible to find anywhere else in the world. Very exciting, but also with cultural attractions, and you won’t have to be embarrassed to say you came” the deputy Mayor says.

The city wants to be recognized for her cultural and charming attraction and not only as a crazy place where almost everything is tolerated.

 click here for the background story

 

India is not so far away

The Bombay terror attack has been described by many as a second 9/11.

The brutality and death poll of the attack had a profound repercussion all over the world.

In London the conspicuous Indian community seems to be lost and astonished.

At the Indian temple in Neasden, North London, the atmosphere is tense. Only one out of eight people in this place, which is the largest Hindu temple out of India, accepted to comment upon the tragic events of the past few days.

Aarish Patel, an Indian banker who’s lived in London for the past ten years, said “what happened in Mumbai deeply affected our community and it is going to leave an open wound for a long time”.

The Indian community has been holding prayers services for the victims of the attack, and on Saturday 20 of November the Harrow and Brent many residents joined the Indian community to express sadness and grief for all those killed.

BACKGROUND: Racism is no longer in the air

Video-clips inspired by Nazism ideology were censored on youtube.

Neo Nazism origin

The term neo-Nazism refers to post War-Word II political movements, social movements and ideologies seeking to revive Nazism, or same variant that echoes core aspects of Nazism such as racial or ethnic nationalism. Neo-Nazis rarely use the word neo-Nazi to describe themselves, often opting for labels such as National Socialist, Nationalist or related terms. Around Europe This Kind of movements became very popular at the beginning of 90.

The continuing propagation of Nazi ideology in recent times has relied heavily on music. Rock music has been the neo-Nazi movement’s most direct means of enlisting and developing its youth support.

The music sounds much like other heavy metal, thrash and grunge, but the lyrics are venomous. The dominant themes are violent attacks, race war, white supremacy, Nordic and Teutonic mythology and the pure hatred of all non-Caucasians, especially blacks and Jews.

The emergence of the internet has been central to the proliferation of Nazi music, via direct order CDs, music videos and related merchandise such as T-shirts and posters. Links to record companies and bands make up a significant part of neo-Nazi and skinhead websites. One can view extensive CD catalogues (including CD covers), video footage, band biographies, song lyrics and hear samples of recordings. Orders are made via credit cards and received via fax, e-mail or post.

Youtube

YouTube was created in February 2005. The company is based in California and uses Adolbe Flash Videos technology to display a wide variety of user – generated video content including music videos. It is the phenomenon whereby video clips, often produced by individuals acting on their own.

Every month, YouTube receives an average of 20 million visitors, who watch 100 million video clips a day. There are 65,000 new videos posted every day. Most of the videos are frivolous, produced by and for teenagers. But some are serious. Same clips spread anti social behaviour and videos relating to violent activities through politic propaganda.

99 Fosse

The band emerges out of skinhead groups and plays in generally makeshift venues to audiences of mostly young males with shaved heads, tattoos, tight jeans and big boots; raising their arms in the Nazi salute and chanting the slogans of white Aryan supremacy. They have not a web site or a music label. Their album Zycon B was released in clandestinely.

Anti-legal music

In the Italian Constitution is prohibited the expression of pro-Nazi, racist or anti-Semitic views. Thanks to law 2005/93 known as law MANCINO, will be faced a minimum of 3 years in jail who promotes ideas regarding race discrimination.

In many other countries as Germany, France and Belgium has explicit law against Nazism and Fascist behaviors.

Conclusion

Through internet sites all over the world, the nazi- songs business is flourishing to the tune of millions of dollars annually. And so the bands play on.

To read the original article click here

Background Story: Origin of the Rory Peck Trust

The name of the Rory Peck Trust comes from a respected freelance cameraman Rory Peck.

Honour  Pory Peck

Rory Peck was killed in a cross fire during the time when he was covering the events of the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993.

He was a man famed for his fearlessness and persistence as a freelance covering war. He has covered the first Gulf War, the wars in Bosnia and Afghanistan.

2008 Rory Peck Award Ceremony Picture by Lei Yang

After his death, Rory’s wife and intimate friends established an organization to help families, which were having similar experience as them in 1995.

This organization was the precursor of the Rory Peck Trust.

The Rory Peck Trust shoulders the responsibility of holding annual Rory Peck awards to honour freelance’s work.

Meanwhile it offers support to freelance news gatherers and their families worldwide in times of need and to promote their welfare and safety.

After 13- year development, the organization has grown and expanded with contribution from broadcast companies, including BBC, CNN, Reuters TV, CBC, ABC news.

103 freelancers died

When the 2008 Rory Peck Award was drawing to an end, all the guests were invited to stand.

The service was in silent tribute for all the freelances who had been injured, imprisoned and dead in the previous years.

The service lasted for more than two minutes until all the freelancers’ names were projected on the big screen.

The indispensable ritual reminded people of what freelances have suffered for bringing the vivid truth to the audience.

According to statistics released by the Rory Peck Trust, four freelance camera people died in 2008.

From 1978 to 2008 there were totally 103 lost their lives in the coverage of news.

WEB CRITIQUE

http://www.monitor.co.ug

1.    First Impression

•    The design is not appealing.
•    The name of the site, DAILY MONITOR,  is not easily readable, it looks like an advertisement,
•    Too many colours and they contrast greatly.
•    Too many blinking adverts that compete for one’s attention thus very destructive to the reader.
•    Screen leaves one very confused.
•    No harmony on the page as some advertisements flash, others
scroll upwards and some downwards at opposite sides of the screen.
•    It is not 2.0 site because it does not have any form of multi media.
•    No specific colour scheme.
•    The site is not centralized hence; there is too much white space on the right side of the site.
•    Pluses: – It has a centralized, functional navigation system on the left hand side.
-    It has a comments section, which facilitates feedback.
-    Important content is placed at the upper fold
-    A consistent font is used on the site.

2. Writing

•    The writing is not tight.
•    The first paragraph is not highlighted, and the sentences are separated by single spaces.
•    It does not follow the F-Style of writing.
•    The content runs across the whole screen, there are no columns present.
•    The sentences are too long.
•    Very long paragraphs.
•    No hyperlinks.
•    No background stories.
•    The font used is not Verdana.
•    Some stories do not flow.

3.Content

•    Too many advertisements.
•    No pictures or videos on stories.
•    Stories are either very short or very long.
•     Its unique selling point is the large number of comments.

It lacks both video and audio inputs.

4. Navigation

•    Clear navigation
•    Very consistent.
•    No sub navigation bars.
•    Content is organised by topic.
•    Lacks both deep linking and generic linking.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1.    Reduced advertisements.
2.    Harmonization of the colours on the home page/ colour scheme.
3.    Use of multi media.
4.    The writing should follow Jakob Nielson’s rules.
5.    Use of online font, i.e. Verdana
6.    Use of hyperlinks
7.    Use of pictures.

Web critique: VG and the magic of chaos

A visit to VG online, Norway’s most read news site, is like exploring a fun fair with a hangover and a kaleidoscope.

With 2,7 million users each week the online version of Norway’s biggest- selling tabloid newspaper is by far the most visited news site in the country (Norway’s total population is just under 4,8 million).

It has been crowned as “the ugliest website in the world’, even by its editor-in-chief, and one innocent glance at vg.no should be enough to make web design guru Jakob Nielsen cry himself to sleep.

Torry Pedersen on champagne and frozen pizza. Photograph: Karoline Hjorth.

“VG has the world’s ugliest website, but the great thing about it is that it lets you discover things you did not know you were interested in.

Other news sites divide their content in neatly defined sections, but we believe that people will drink champagne with frozen pizza if given the choice,” previous editor-in-chief Torry Pedersen told journalism.co.uk.

Chaos is the new order

VG (short for Verdens Gang) went online as early as 1995 and when scrolling down the incredibly long front page it seems like the interface designers never left the 90s.

Every colour of the rainbow fights for your attention as you enter the chaotic left- centered front page.

In contrast to other award- winning news cites like The New York Times or Guardian, vg.no leaves white space little mercy.

Jack-in-the-boxes adverts hide behind every pixel in a super tight grid- based layout with a wall of aggressive animations jumping out to get you as you aim for the screaming headlines.

Who said Scandinavian minimalism? Simplicity? User friendliness?

Browsing- not searching

Strategic prioritising and weighting of news are crucial traits of the site’s interface and provide clues to its incredibly lengthy front page.

Vg.no is designed for browsing – not searching, as only 10% of the users come through search engines, Pedersen told Forum4editors.

You are firmly directed to the most important stories as you enter the front door: Image- heavy multimedia pieces are supported by gigantic unclickable headlines in Times New Roman, with a font size that varies from word to word.

Unlike Jakob Nielsen’s consistency theory VG headlines do not link into stories, instead you have to follow the bright red links below.

Screenshot of vg.no: Eye strain seem to be VG's main design feature

Vg.no’s choice of navigation seems to be yet another feature to defy the dominating norm of web site design.

Instead of placing the primary navigation menu just below the header and above the content, vg.no uses the left sidebar for content category links.

Sharing the banner with two adverts, the header is so modest itself could be taken for an ad.

The navigation colour scheme is confusing and without any logic structure.

Crammed- in adverts in the navigation menu contain their own navigation, which adds to the confusion.

Several links lead to pages with a different structure and design from the front page, making the overall site inconsistent and hard to navigate.

S for success and Social media integration

It is debatable whether Vg.no’s success is achieved through, not despite of its aesthetic appearance.

It hosts some of the best tabloid online journalists in the country and serves immaculately crafted headlines for tabloid lovers 24/7.

Once you isolate the noise from the visual clutter, each story’s body text is highly scannable with clearly marked headlines, sub headers and paragraphs.

Internal page links with background material is spread throughout, with possibilities for reader involvement through debates, discussions and blogs.

And here lies the magic: VG Online has developed Norway’s second biggest social network and actively fronts  web 2.0 features such as blogging platforms, social networks, dating services and diet clubs.

With a staggering number of unique users, vg.no maintains its position as the most read and most profitable news site in Norway.

Professionals and college grads on the jobhunt

‘Almost Homeless’ reads the sign.

Former toy-industry executive Paul Nawrocki has been spotted in New York City wearing those words across his chest.

“Looking for employment. Very experienced operations and administration manager.”
The recession has taken its toll on even the most experienced in the job market.

CNN reported that the U.S. government estimated 533,000 jobs in the country were lost in November.

In total more than 1.9 million jobs have been lost in 2008.

Nawrocki worked at Sababa Group where he made a good salary “almost six figures,” he told the Canadian Press.

Now he has burned through his retirement savings since losing his job at the in February.

Qualified business men are not the only ones in trouble.

The problem is prominent at the entry level field for recent college graduates.

Over a 100 applications

The National Association of Colleges and Employers released a report that indicates new graduates will have a tough time finding work.

Employers have already begun to scale back on the number of fresh graduates they hire.

This is bad news for Katie Sears, who recently graduated from the University of Denver.

She has been looking for a job since the summer and has sent out almost a 100 resumes .

“One job that I really, really wanted had about 300 applicants.” she points out. Not even knowing people at the firm could help her land the position.

“I’ve have had some very cool jobs, did some volunteer work around the world even!” she says.

Her major was marketing with a minor in business ethics and legal studies. She also did volunteer work in India and Africa.

The market has become so competitive as more graduates compete for the same positions. A promising resume does not seem to be enough either.

The barren job market has more the idea of graduate school even more appealing. Sears plans to go back to school if she can not find employment

Entry level woes

Katie Hancock, who also graduated from the University of Denver has run into her own post graduation problems.

“Alot of entry jobs levels are scams.” she explains. Working as a waitress provided an income, but when an official sounding employer called back she left.

When Hancock arrived at her new marketing job, she quickly discovered it was nothing more than a glorified telemarketing position.

Unhappy with the company she quit.

“Applying for jobs is frustrating because I went to a good school but I don’t have enough real work experience. I want to go back to grad school but I want to make some money before I go back.”

Unable to return to waitressing she remains unemployed.

CLICK HERE FOR A BACKGROUND ON PROFESSIONALS AND COLLEGE GRADS ON THE JOBHUNT