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In this chapter, we will discuss Poverty and certain things around it.
What is Poverty? How the perspective about Poverty has changed over the years? Various Definitions of Poverty, The Concepts of Absolute Poverty and Relative Poverty, Measurement of Poverty – various methods and committees; Causes of Poverty; Linkage between Growth and Poverty reduction; Non-income based Poverty Dimensions.; Approach towards Poverty Alleviation Programmes, State-wise Poverty Data
1. Historical Perspective
The thinking among the policymakers has changed a lot about the poverty has changed over the last century; there was a time when Poverty was considered a necessity for economic advancement since without it who would farm the land, work in the factories and do menial jobs for the society.
They believed avoiding hunger was the necessary incentive for doing work, thus nothing explicitly was done to reduce the poverty among people; however they recognized the need for providing a degree of protection from crises, say, during the failure of monsoons or a plague attack, the rulers used to waive off or reduce the taxes, so that it wouldn't affect the social stability.
But this support was not extended in the normal times and often it needed another calamity to occur for support to be re-established. Thus, mass poverty was taken for granted and no efforts were made to reduce the poverty permanently.
This no longer happens, now, Poverty is now seen as a social ill that can be solved through strong consistent policy action. What is debated now is the shape the policy action should take?
Some suggest that it can be done by strong Economic growth, some suggest building capability of the poor to overcome Poverty, and some suggest income augmenting methods, more about that later. Let us first go through the basics of the concept of Poverty.
2. Definitions of Poverty
In most simplistic terms, the poverty can be defined as a state where the person is not earning enough money to meet the most basic needs of Food, Clothing, and Shelter – "Roti, Kapda Aur Makaan."
Some thinkers have expanded the meaning of poverty to include other dimensions as well. They call Poverty a multifaceted concept, which may include social, economic, cultural and political elements and differentiate
- The Social elements would include – equality of status and opportunity, access to health care and education, affordable housing etc.
- The economic elements would be income measure, right to work and subsidies for essential items such as food grains.
- The political dimension includes – freedom of thought, expression, and association.
- The cultural dimension would include- the right to maintain one's cultural identity and be involved in a community's cultural life
2.1 Concepts in Poverty:
There are two concepts of poverty in economics. They are absolute poverty and relative poverty.
2.1.1 Absolute Poverty
People are said to be in absolute poverty if their earnings are insufficient to obtain the minimum necessities or to meet basic personal needs such as food, clothing, and shelter for the maintenance of physical efficiency. It basically indicates a deprivation of some sort resulting in hunger and starvation. Such minimum necessities are usually measured in terms of minimum nutritional requirements.
Absolute poverty is also called as extreme poverty or destitution.
The concept of absolute poverty is not concerned with the broader quality of life issues or with the overall level of inequality in society. The concept, therefore, fails to recognize that individuals have important social and cultural needs. This, and similar criticisms led to the development of the concept of relative poverty.
2.1.2 Relative Poverty
The people of low-income groups are relatively poor as compared to the people whose incomes are high. Here poverty is viewed in terms of inequality between the poorest group and the rest of the community. It is to be noted that relative poverty cannot be eradicated without transfers from the rich to the poor. At the same time, the relatively poor may be living above the minimum subsistence level.
The expression of relative poverty indicates income inequality.
3. Working Definitions of Poverty – Poverty Lines
These definitions mentioned above tell us what poverty is but they are not much useful in assessing how many people are poor and the level of public action required for eliminating the Poverty due to the subjective nature of the interpretation of these terms. So, different countries and institutions define poverty in absolute terms to arrive at the estimates of people reeling in poverty. So countries typically define national poverty lines.
The poverty line is the amount of money needed for a person to meet his basic needs. It is defined as the money value of the goods and services needed to provide basic welfare to an individual. The Poverty lines differ from one country to another, depending upon the idea of poverty.
3.1 Definition of World Bank:
The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$ 1.90 per day> (PPP), and moderate poverty as less than $3.10 a day.
3.2 Definition in India
The current definition of the Poverty line in India is based on the methodology given by the Tendulkar Committee in 2009; it defines poverty, not in terms of annual income but in terms of consumption or spending per individual over a certain period for a basket of essential goods. Further, this methodology sets different poverty lines for rural and urban areas.
We will discuss the methodology in detail in the coming sections.
4. Non-Income Dimensions of Poverty
As discussed earlier, Poverty encompasses multiple and diverse dimensions. Income is a relevant and key dimension—the means and resources to access necessary goods and services for meeting minimum basic needs but excludes expenditures on education and health which are important for living a good life. Hence non-income measures of poverty are important
Health, nutrition, education, physical security, voice, justice, and capacity and opportunity to improve one's life are also essential dimensions of poverty and wellbeing. This inherent multidimensionality is perhaps best conceptualized by Amartya Sen's approach to poverty as capability-deprivation—being deprived of those capabilities and freedoms of value for a functional life. Thus, understanding the multiple dimensions of poverty and subjective perceptions about poverty must take into account non-monetary aspects of overall welfare and living standards.
Later, at the end of this chapter, when we discuss the data related to Poverty, we shall also discuss some important data on the non-income dimensions of poverty such as
- Health indicators – stunting, wasting and malnutrition.
- Education Indicators – Enrolment, Absenteeism, Literacy etc.
- The World Bank's "Voices of the Poor," based on research with over 20,000 poor people in 23 countries, identifies a range of factors which poor people identify as part of poverty. These include- Discrimination, lack of security, living in secluded locations, problems in social relationships, abuse by those in power etc.
5. Measurement of Poverty in India
Historically, the measurement of poverty in India starts with Dadabhai Naoroji in the 19th century when he wrote the book "Poverty and Un-British rule in India",
His careful study led him to conclude subsistence-based poverty line in 1867-68 prices as Rs 16 and Rs 35 per capita per year in various regions of India, though it is important to note that he never used the word "poverty line". It was based on the cost of a subsistence diet consisting of 'rice or flour, dhal, mutton, vegetables, ghee, vegetable oil and salt'. At that time, per capita income of England was at Rs. 450.
In 1938, Congress president Subhash Chandra Bose set up the National Planning Committee (NPC) with Jawaharlal Nehru as chairman and Professor K. T. Shah as secretary for the purpose of drawing up an economic plan with the fundamental aim to ensure an adequate standard of living for the masses. The Committee regarded the irreducible minimum income between Rs. 15 to Rs. 25 per capita per month at Pre-war prices. However, this was also not tagged something as a poverty line of the country.
The measurement of Poverty in India was taken up by the Planning Commission in the initial years, and in the last few decades, the measurement of Poverty has become controversial and contentious due to the following reasons:
- The measurement of Poverty has fiscal ramifications –If the poverty line low, it may leave out many needed people who are just marginally above the poverty line and if kept high, it would be bad for the fiscal health of the government.
- The debate on the extent of poverty in India has also been a matter of global interest in the recent years because the levels of poverty in India and China have come to exert significant influence over the trends in world poverty itself.
5.1 Various estimates of Poverty in India
5.1.1 Working Group of Planning Commission, 1962
The working group of the Planning Commission in 1962 arrived at a national minimum for each household of five persons at Rs 100 per month for Rural and Rs. 125 for Urban at 1960-61 prices. That is of Rs 20 and Rs 25 per person per year respectively. It excluded the health and education expenditures as these were supposed to be provided by the government.
Thus, this came to be the first poverty line for India and was used for different schemes in the 1960s and through 1970s at different levels. But there was an intense criticism of these numbers for being low, so Government of India appointed another task force under the chairmanship of Y.K. Alagh to update the poverty line.
5.1.2 Y K Alagh Committee, 1979
Till this committee, the approach to estimate poverty was traditional i.e. lack of income. It was later decided to measure poverty in terms of how much people eat i.e., the calories consumed by the people became the basis for calculation of Poverty. The committee based on the recommendation of Nutrition Expert Group came to a conclusion that the people consuming less than 2100 calories in the urban areas or less than 2400 calories in the rural areas are poor. The logic behind the discrimination between rural and urban areas was that the rural people do more physical work.
Now, these calorie requirements were given 'monetary value' determined by ascertaining 'quantity' of consumption and 'prices/value' of that quantity, the data for arriving at the monetary value was provided by NSSO survey. They arrived at the consumer expenditure (food and non-food) of
- 49.09 per capita per month was associated with a calorie intake of 2400 per capita per day in rural areas and
- 56.64 per capita per month with a calorie intake of 2100 per day in urban areas.
Even this committee excluded the health and education expenditures as these were supposed to be provided by the government.
This 'Monthly Per Capita Expenditure' was termed as the poverty line. This poverty line was used for upcoming years adjusting it to the inflation.
5.1.3 Lakdawala Committee, 1993
The committee retained the assumptions of the Alagh Committee about the 2400 and 2100 calories worth of consumption in rural and urban areas respectively in addition to clothing and shelter for the calculation of the poverty line. However, the Lakdawala Committee differed from Alagh Committee in terms of the following points:
- It came up with 'State specific Poverty Line' with poverty line basket of the base year 1973-74 instead of a single All-India Poverty line and 'poverty ratios' of states were aggregated to 'All India poverty ratio' based on 'population-based weighted average of these states.
- And the 'Rural and Urban Poverty lines of states' were updated by taking into account
- 'Consumer Price Index- Agricultural Labor' for 'Rural state-specific poverty line ' and
- 'CPI- Industrial workers' for 'Urban state-specific poverty line'.
After the adoption of this committee's formula, the number of people below the poverty line which was only 16 percent of the population in 1993-94 became 36.3 percent.
Till as recently as 2011, the official poverty lines were based entirely on the estimates of the Lakdawala Committee of 1993.
5.1.4 Suresh Tendulkar Committee, 2005
The committee was constituted by the Planning Commission in 2005 to address the following three shortcomings of the previous methods:
- Consumption patterns were linked to the 1973-74 poverty line baskets (PLBs) of goods and services, whereas there were significant changes in the consumption patterns of the poor since that time.
- There were issues with the adjustment of prices for inflation, both spatially (across regions) and temporally (across time); and
- The poverty lines assumed that health and education would be provided by the State and formulated poverty lines accordingly.
It submitted its report in the year 2009 and it recommended four major changes:
- a shift away from calorie consumption based poverty estimation;
- a uniform poverty line basket (PLB) across rural and urban India;
- a change in the price adjustment procedure to correct spatial and temporal issues with price adjustment; and
- The inclusion of private expenditure on health and education while estimating poverty.
The Committee arrived at new poverty lines for rural and urban areas of each state. It concluded that the all India poverty line was Rs 446.68 per capita per month in rural areas and Rs 578.80 per capita per month in urban areas in 2004-05.
The data was updated adjusting for changes in prices and patterns of consumption, using the consumption basket of people close to the poverty line instead of using indices derived from the CPI-AL for rural areas and CPI-IW for urban areas as was done earlier.
When the committee recommendations were adopted in the year 2011, the poverty line was Rs 816 per capita per month for rural areas (Rs. 27/day) and Rs. 1000 (Rs 33/day) for urban areas. These expenditures as per expert group were sufficient to cover food and non-food expenditure, including that on health and education.
This committee's recommendations too sparked off a furious row, as these numbers were considered unrealistic and extremely low.
The government under pressure appointed another committee under Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C. Rangarajan to review the poverty estimation methodology.
5.1.5 Rangarajan Committee, 2012
In 2012, the Planning Commission constituted a new expert panel with the following key objectives:
- to provide an alternate method to estimate poverty levels and examine whether poverty lines should be fixed solely in terms of a consumption basket or if other criteria are also relevant;
- to examine divergence between the consumption estimates based on the NSSO methodology and those emerging from the National Accounts aggregates;
- to review international poverty estimation methods and indicate whether based on these, a particular method for empirical poverty estimation can be developed in India, and
- To recommend how these estimates of poverty can be linked to eligibility and entitlements under the various schemes of the Government of India.
The Committee submitted its report in 2014 and gave 'per capita monthly expenditure' as Rs. 972 in rural areas (Rs 32/day) and Rs. 1407 (Rs 47 /day) in urban areas as the poverty line.
- It preferred to use 'Monthly expenditure of Household of five' for the poverty line purpose which came out to be Rs 4860 in rural areas and Rs. 7035 in urban areas. It argued that considering the expenditure of household is more appropriate than that of individuals.
- It reverted to an old system of separate poverty line baskets for Rural and urban areas, which was unified by Tendulkar group.
With estimates of Rangarajan committee, Poverty stood at around 30% in 2011-12. The number of poor in India was estimated at 36.3 crores in 2011-12. This 2014 report also did not placate the critics and was turned down by the NDA government.
Currently, the numbers given by the Tendulkar Committee are given out for poverty estimates. It is often said that Tendulkar Poverty line is equivalent to World Bank's $1 or $1.25 in PPP terms. This purely incidental and poverty line calculated by Tendulkar had nothing to do with World Bank methodologies. But government often defended poverty line claiming that it is as per global standards. The World Bank has revised its Poverty line to $1.90 now.
5.1.6 Latest Committee on Poverty estimates under Arvind Panagariya, 2015
To define the poverty line, The NDA Government had constituted a 14-member task force under NITI Aayog's vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya to arrive at revised and realistic poverty line in 2015.
The task force also failed to reach a consensus on the poverty line. In September 2016, it suggested to the government that another panel of specialists should be asked to do this job {if defining poverty line}. Informally, this committee supported the poverty line as suggested by Tendulkar Committee. Thus, the debate on the poverty estimates still remains unsettled.
6. Incidence of Poverty in different States
60% of the poor reside in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The reason for these states to be in the category of the poorest state is because 85% of tribal people live there. Also, most of these regions are either flood-prone or suffer from calamities. These conditions hamper agriculture to a great extent, on which the household income of these people depends.
We have discussed so far the methodologies and issues concerned with the calculation of the poverty measures in India; let us now understand what causes or perpetuates the poverty?
7. Causes of Poverty
Poverty is a socio-economic evil, for the eradication of which requires well-planned and concerted efforts. Therefore, though the causes of poverty may be otherwise obvious, we need to do a thorough diagnosis of what perpetuates Poverty.
India inherited Poverty from the years of Colonial rule which kept us under Economic Subjugation for as long as 200 years and India became independent with more than 50% of the population of India living below poverty line, which is one of the reasons for still persisting higher levels of poverty. However, despite 70 years of Independence India still has a lot of poverty.
We can categorize the causes for poverty into a number of categories Economic, Social, Geographical, Environmental etc.
7.1 Economic causes of poverty in India
7.1.1 Subdued Economic Growth
For years post-independence had a slow economic growth due to bad governmental policies and caused and perpetuated widespread poverty. Stagnant or slow-paced economic development leads to poverty.
7.1.2 Skewed Employment ratio
The population to jobs ratio in India is unbalanced, as we skipped the phase of growth led by the manufacturing sector post-reforms which could have provided employment to vast sections of the population. The services sector couldn't provide employment to as many people as manufacturing could have given. The unemployment in masses is a leading cause of poverty.
7.1.3 Lack of Agricultural Development
No country can be economically balanced without the aid of a strong agricultural backbone. Despite Agriculture being the majority occupation in India, the productivity levels are still low and at subsistence levels for various crops with exception of cereal foods of wheat and rice, due to lack of development in the sector.
7.1.4 Inadequate industrialization in certain areas
Industries provide employment opportunities to the locals of the place. The concentration of industries in any few states has deprived areas and face acute poverty.
7.1.5 Inequality in distribution of resources
India has an uneven concentration of wealth and resources, which leads to an extreme situation wherein people are either neo-rich or below the poverty line. This unbalance is harmful to our nation`s overall economy and development.
According to a survey conducted by Oxfam, the richest 1% in India cornered 73% of the wealth generated in the country last year.
7.2 Social causes of Poverty
7.2.1 Social evils like Untouchability and caste system
Untouchability and caste system limits people of certain lower castes from their democratic rights and does not allow them to venture outside their caste to seek employment and leads to deprivation of resources to those people. They are shunned from the society and pushed towards poverty. There are not allowed to venture into the general employment opportunities and are forced to do meager jobs thus perpetuating poverty in those groups of people.
7.2.2 Widespread ignorance and illiteracy
High level of illiteracy in India is another major cause of poverty. Uneducated people are unable to tap their complete potential and hence their earning sources get limited. They are unaware of all the possible opportunities any modern society has to offer and spend their lives in ignorance. They are unable to compete with the educated counter-parts of the competitive society and hence remain in poverty.
7.2.3 Overpopulation
Overpopulation in any place increases competition in the employment sector and puts a pressure on the scarce resources. As a result, poverty creeps in, in any overpopulated place since competition increases and opportunities decrease.
7.3 Geographical and Environmental Factors
7.3.1 Selective fertility of land
The fertility of the soil is not the same in every region of a country and varies from place to place. While the fertile areas have blessed agricultural produce, the unfertile lands are pushed towards poverty naturally.
7.3.2 Flooding of lands
Natural calamities like floods can completely destroy farmlands and adversely affect the agricultural produce and are one of the reasons for high incidence for poverty in pockets of Eastern India at places like Assam, West Bengal, and Bihar.
7.3.3 Long spells of drought
Another climatic adversity that causes poverty is drought. Long spells of drought harm farmlands and the overall agricultural output. Droughts are a permanent cause of poverty in some of the regions of India such as Rajasthan and Karnataka.
8. Approach towards Poverty Alleviation in India
Over the years Government of India has carried out numerous Poverty alleviation programmes right from the First Five Year Plan to date. We can find in all policy documents of the government that emphasis has been laid on poverty alleviation but the approach and schemes for the elimination of poverty have changed plan after plan.
The approach can be divided into three phases
8.1 Phase 1: Trickle-down theory
The first one is the growth-oriented approach which assumes that the benefits of the rapid g— rapid growth in GDP per capita income — would spread to all sections of society and will trickle down to the poor sections also. This has been described by the economists as the Trickle Down theory. It was the major focus of planning in the 1950s and early 1960s. The assumption was that the industrial development and transformation of agriculture through the green revolution in select regions would benefit the underdeveloped regions and the more backward sections of the community.
But the approach backfired; Green Revolution and limited industrialization exacerbated the disparities regionally and between large and small farmers.
8.2 Phase 2: Direct Anti-Poverty programmes
With the failure of Trickle-down economics, the government of India looked at achieving through specific poverty alleviation programmes. The assumption was that incomes and employment for the poor could be raised through the creation of additional assets and by means of work generation.
These programmes can be classified as –
1) Wage employment programmes 2) Self-employment programmes 3) Food security programmes 4) Social security programmes
Some of the noted programmes are Food for Work, Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP), Prime Minister's Rozgar Yojana (PMRY) and Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY), etc.
8.3 Phase 3: Provision of minimum basic amenities
India was among the pioneers in the world to envisage that through public expenditure on social consumption needs — provision of food grains at subsidized rates, health, water supply and sanitation—people's living standard could be improved. Programmes under this approach are expected to supplement the consumption of the poor, create employment opportunities and bring about improvements in health and education.
Three major programmes that aim at improving the food and nutritional status of the poor are Public Distribution System, Integrated Child Development Scheme, and Midday Meal Scheme.
Certain other programmes such as Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Various Housing Programmes (Awas Yojana) are also attempts in the same direction. It may be essential to briefly state that India has achieved satisfactory progress in many aspects.
8.4 Phase 4: Integrated Rights-based Approach
The last decade can be called as Integrated or Comprehensive Approach towards the poverty alleviation with enactment of National Food Security Mission, Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP), Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), National Rural Drinking Water Programme, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA), and National Urban Livelihood Mission with all the programmes being implemented in mission mode and a single objective of Poverty elimination.
9. Challenges to eliminating extreme poverty
What are the principal challenges in tackling poverty? Why despite huge focus by the government, the progress has been slow?
9.1 Inequality
- Among the list of threats one can identify to attaining that goal, inequality stands out as a major concern today. Rising inequality can mean that growth largely by-passes poor people.
- The inequalities can be multi-faceted:
- Inequalities in access to good quality schooling and health care
- Inequalities in access to land (including insecurity of rights over land) also remain an impediment to pro-poor growth.
- Gender inequalities
9.2 Implementation
The pro-poor policies call for better quality public institutions and services that are inclusive of the needs of poor people. We have the best of programs on paper but fail miserably on delivery and implementation.
For example, in the PDS, as much as half of the grains procured by the government for the poor are siphoned off by middlemen before reaching their intended beneficiaries. Transparency and accountability have been missing from our public policies.
9.3 Low Revenue Base
Improving the tax systems in the country to expand the revenue for the antipoverty policies must also be a high priority. GST has been a right step in this direction, now we need to rationalize the rates of GST and increase the direct taxation base.
The bigger challenges ahead are in assuring the political will and administrative capabilities to implement and enforce sound anti-poverty policies, and in adapting them to differing circumstances and evolving knowledge about their efficacy.
10. Some Important Measures of Poverty
10.1. Human Poverty Index
The Human Poverty Index (HPI) was an indication of the standard of living in a country, developed by the United Nations (UN) to complement the Human Development Index (HDI) and was first reported as part of the Human Development Report in 1997. It was considered to better reflect the extent of deprivation in developed countries compared to the HDI.
In 2010 it was supplanted by the UN's Multidimensional Poverty Index.
10.2. Multidimensional Poverty Index
- Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was developed in 2010 by the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme and uses different factors to determine poverty beyond income-based lists.
- It replaced the previous Human Poverty Index.
- The global MPI is released annually by OPHI and the results published on its website.
10.3. Poverty gap index
- The poverty gap index is a measure of the intensity of poverty. It is defined as the average poverty gap in the population as a proportion of the poverty line
- The poverty gap index is an improvement over the poverty measure headcount ratio which simply counts all the people below a poverty line, in a given population, and considers them equally poor.
- Poverty gap index estimates the depth of poverty by considering how far, on the average, the poor are from that poverty line.
10.4. Global Hunger Index
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger globally and by country and region. Hunger is one of the manifestations of Poverty.
The Index was adopted and further developed by the Washington based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and was first published in 2006 with the Welthungerhilfe, a German non-profit organization. Since 2007, the Irish NGO Concern Worldwide joined the group as co-publisher.
In the report of 2017, India is at the 100th position among 119 countries.
The report and the rankings are based on the percentage of the under-nourished population and three health indicators for children aged less than five years: wasting (low weight for height); stunting (low height for age) and mortality. These are manifestations of Poverty.


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This month we'll discuss Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig.
"A personal and vital look at how to feel happy, human and whole in the twenty-first century."
The night will look something like the below...
7-7.30pm - arrivals/sign in
7.30pm - intros
7.45pm-8.30pm - questions for discussion
8.30pm - written exercise and bar/loo break
8.45pm - 9.30pm - questions for discussion
9.30pm - written exercise to close
Reading the book is optional (but encouraged!) and we'll be covering key quotes, exercises and themes from it throughout the night.
And meetups are free (food and drink available to buy) but please RSVP to Toni here if you're heading on down.
Looking forward to chatting with you!
Link to buy > https://amzn.to/2OX2ugI

subset: commoncrawl


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Lisa Russ Spaar
Tristesse Madrigal
Morning after, a black crow,
parsonly, struts the driveway,
dips into a divot's catch of rain
its Aesopian beak. Shadows shift
in shape of sycamores, Corinthian tops
raving in wind their emerald tatting.
Clouds condense sky. Sirens cry.
In a ditch, flies silver a fallen doe.
Most of all, this dent against matted fence,
nest some rabbits made in winter,
meuse, old word for the bodymark
animals make, bedding down.
Absence blue as the prophet's cloak.
Secret muse that fills my throat.
Lisa Russ Spaar's "Bald-faced Hornet Madrigal," "Lady Bird Taint Madrigal," and "Tristesse Madrigal" can be read in the print edition of The Arkansas International 4.
Lisa Russ Spaar is the author and editor of over ten books of poems and essays, most recently OREXIA: POEMS (Persea, 2017) and the forthcoming more truly and more strange: Contemporary American Self-Portrait Poems (Persea, 2019). Her awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rona Jaffe Award. She is professor of English at the University of Virginia.


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Masai Tribe. Masai Mara. Kenya.
The Migrants. Kathmandu, Nepal. On the outlying sector of Boudhanath there is a migrant camp of people from Rajasthan, India known there as the Untouchables. This includes the two lowest "castes" - the Beggars and Garbage Pickers, They have migrated to Nepal and Boudha, specifically, because in Boudha there is the possibility for more. More work. More chance. More possibility. Especially for the girl children. Typically, young women have no hope of leaving the caste or upgrading to a better life. Here, and through the efforts of Quilts4Kids they can receive an education and begin to change the cycles of suffering.
Phulping Katti. Nepal. The villages of Phulping Katti and Citing had for centuries served as a conduit for travelers from Tibet to Nepal especially during the years of the Chinese overthrow and massacre of the Tibetan people. It became a place of physical and spiritual refuge. In 2015 both villages were decimated by an earthquake which killed 9,000 in Nepal and affected roughly 20,000. 9 people in Phulping died. Most homes and the schools which served the surrounding villages were destroyed. Luckily, because the earthquake hit in the afternoon, most people were outside. Many evacuated and walked for days to Kathmandu were they lived in IDP camps for nearly two years. Of the billions dollars of aid that were given to Nepal from other countries, I was told from the Sherpa community very little if anything was given to the people in the camps. They had to start over and over again.
Within these pictures you will see the faces of the Sherpa community. Resilient. Strong. Connected. And after spending time with them, getting to know them, the beautiful outrageous sense of mirth within them.
Coastal Kenya


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I am an EFA at Nixon Street Primary School, in beautiful Devonport. I have really enjoyed the security of having a permanent part-time job, good working conditions and great workmates for over a decade now.
As we all know the recent election saw the return of the Liberal Government for another four-year term. This means that on the 30th of September, 2018, it is very possible that our Job Security Agreement won't be renewed. Only previous Labor governments have honoured and renewed our Job Security Agreement, which protects the FECA model and our direct employment by the DOE. Our job security may come to an end.
I must admit that I was pretty complacent about my job security in the past. Just taking it for granted that the Government would simply renew the agreement in recognition of the valuable contribution we make in state schools, colleges and TAFES. I know that we can't be complacent in today's workplaces though, with more public service jobs being privatised and with further casualisation. In 1997 EFAs took industrial strike action to win job security.
We need to stand together to have a strong, united voice, bolstered by every EFA possible, a powerful fighting team. If we want to protect our current work conditions and job security, we need the weight of numbers to pressure the Government into sign our JSA.
As members of United Voice we will have the opportunity to actively join in this campaign, so keep your eye out for upcoming activities and events. Delegates will help keep their workmates informed. Union representatives will be contacting other key stakeholder groups, including school community members to help show their support for EFAs. I will join other cluster leaders, and look forward to contacting delegates and EFAs in other local schools and helping to keep them up to date.
I hope we are successful at winning job security. I am at an age, where I simply can't afford to lose my job and I know many others who are in the same boat.


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A grass-roots Democratic group that helped power the upset victory of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has identified a Texas Democrat as its first target ahead of the 2020 congressional primaries — but as of now, Ocasio-Cortez herself is staying neutral.Justice Democrats, a political committee founded after the 2016 election to reshape the Democratic Party through primary challenges, is working to recruit a challenger to Rep. Henry Cuellar, a seven-term congressman from a strongly Democratic district who's one of the few anti-abortion-rights voices in the party's House conference.In a statement, the group compared Texas's 28th Congressional District, which gave the president just 38.5 percent of the vote in 2016, to other districts where left-leaning candidates have unseated incumbents. It is launching a "primary Cuellar fund" to encourage any potential candidate that there will be resources if he or she jumps into the race.
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We provide building and facilities management services in commercial markets across the UK
We provide offices and workspaces that are home to businesses in desirable locations in Buckinghamshire and the East Midlands.
We have something to offer businesses of all sizes so whether you need an amazing office designed to your own specification, a desk in a shared office that gets you out of the house, or just a business address, we've got you covered.
We provide the very best places for people to work from - high-quality workspaces that are bright, modern, clean, spacious, secure, accessible, affordable and that have everything you need to run a business. This includes phones and internet services that just work, spaces for you to run meetings, seminars and training sessions and places to grab coffee or a bite to eat. Our onsite staff provide a positive and professional experience to our clients and their visitors.
We'll manage the building leaving you to focus on with running your business. Think of us as your own personal office and facilities manager in one. From choosing a workspace, to customising it and getting it set up just the way you want it, to moving in and running your business, we are here for you every step of the way.
We are always delighted to speak to landlords and portfolio managers who are seeking managing agency services. We are a small, professional, effective and efficient team that prides itself in the quality and consistency of the services we deliver.
Contact us to arrange a viewing of one of our business centres or to discuss your requirements with us. We are not pushy salespeople so we won't constantly chase you into making a decision.


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New Leaf Paper is the largest paper company in the United States focused exclusively on sustainable, superior papers. Since 1998, we have led the industry with environmentally responsible papers that compete aesthetically and economically with leading virgin-fiber papers. New Leaf Paper offers a wide selection of coated, uncoated and office papers, with 100% post-consumer recycled content (PCRF) and Forest Stewardship Council certification.
The paper industry is one of the most polluting and resource intensive industries in the world. It is responsible for over a third of worldwide timber harvest and over 40% of all landfill waste in the U.S. When New Leaf Paper was founded in 1998, the paper industry had demonstrated a high resistance to change. With low margins, a commoditized international market, and huge capital investment in the status quo, paper companies resisted efforts to integrate sustainable principles into their business practices.
New Leaf Paper was founded specifically to change this picture — with the mission of leading a shift toward sustainability in the paper industry. The company developed a unique approach to business, embedding its social and environmental values into every product line and every business relationship. New Leaf Paper's innovative strategy is solving the classic "chicken or the egg" dilemma in the paper industry, in which both the supply side and the demand side of the market were unable to change their behavior. Leveraging the strength and clarity of the company's mission, New Leaf Paper developed a market for truly environmentally responsible papers and served this market through leading product innovation.
Using this model, New Leaf Paper was first to market with 100% post-consumer papers of unparalleled brightness and printing specifications, including the first-ever 100% post-consumer recycled fiber (PCRF) coated papers, hybrid uncoated papers, book publishing papers and more. Its product innovation and market success has caused major paper manufacturers to take notice and to enhance the environmental design of their products — indirectly widening New Leaf Paper's environmental impact. Thus, the company's business activity both generates immediate environmental benefits and serves the company's greater mission by pioneering markets and shifting the behavior of its competitors. New Leaf Paper strategy is one of continuous leadership and innovation in driving better and better environmental specifications in its products without losing sight of meeting the demands of the marketplace. This strategy has been critical in driving the company's financial and social performance. Since its founding, the company has never sold any paper made with 100% virgin fiber, and every product line serves the company mission while meeting the business needs of our customers. New Leaf Papers are acid-free, have the highest recycled content and post-consumer recycled fiber content in each grade. In addition, New Leaf Papers are all processed chlorine free. During manufacture, New Leaf papers use up to 80% less water than virgin wood fiber paper.
New Leaf Paper also led the paper industry in quantifying the benefits of using post-consumer recycled fiber, with the New Leaf Paper EcoAudit(SM). Visit our EcoAudit(SM) page for more information.
New Leaf Paper has been widely recognized for our leadership, both in our environmental and design accomplishments. We strive to remain authentic and transparent in all that we do so that other companies can learn from our successes and work toward a similar mission of sustainability. New Leaf Paper continues to perpetuate our founding vision, developing the most sustainable premium papers available. Our team has over 180 years of combined experience in the printing and graphics industry. We will continue to be on press with you with every sheet of paper we produce.


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Sour Cream and Chives Keto Crackers
My newest cracker favourite is definitely these sour cream and chive keto crackers!
I made them and was virtually eating them straight from the baking tray as others were in the oven. So sooooo good! Seriously, I dare you to tell me when you make them that these couldn't be boxed up and be a best selling Arnotts Keto Cracker!
Instructions have been given for thickness in rolling the mixture to as they come out delicious either wafer thin (think super crispy ) and a little thicker like your standard cracker. I am not talking crap when I say these are delicious and easily my favourite. I am making more today and I thought a really nice alternative version might be with some tomato powder and basil for a real Italian pizza flavour. I so have to give that a go too. I just got a new Kitchenaid Bake Assist oven to test out, and see if I can learn how to cook and bake in microwave, Strange it seems but I am up for my own challenge.
Today I am releasing this recipe for you to all test and flood our Facebook Page with your pictures of your batches. Please comment below if you loved these crackers or with your recipe variations so that others know how good they really are. It is your feedback that helps others choose the right recipes when online. Show me your pictures today and I will add a lotto them on here so you too can be part of this deliciously crispy tasty cracker!
For some other tasty crackers try
At the time of posting for some reason my nutritional panel, and conversion for imperial does not want to work. This is after I had already done the recipe and tried to make it look really special in another part of website and it deleted the original post. I can tell you that I do know that these are 2g NET carb per 4 crackers. As soon as it is working again I will get the nutritional information up for you all.
Happy cooking!
xo Meg
Don't forget to link up with Mad Creations on social media so you never miss a recipe.
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Sour Cream and Chives Keto Crackers
- 200 g almond meal
- 30 g grated parmesan I use Hunter Belle Smokey Barbecue Bacon Cheese
- 50 g sour cream
- 1/2 tsp sumac
- 1 tbsp chives fresh chopped
- sea salt flakes I use Maldon smoked sea salt
- lemon pepper I use Goya brand lemon pepper it is amazing!
- Preheat oven to 180℃. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper
Conventional Method
- Mix all ingredients in bowl and follow instructions below
Thermomix Method
- Add almond meal, parmesan, sour cream and sumac to bowl
- Blend 15 seconds/speed 5
- Add chives
- Reverse/5 seconds/speed 3
- Turn out onto Thermomat or large sheet of baking paper. Press mix down firmly with hands and cover with another sheet of baking paper. Roll out to desired thinness. (1-2mm will give you a "snap" crisp cracker, and 2-4mm will give you a more substantial crisp cracker)
- Cut to desired shape and carefully transfer to prepared baking trays
- Turn oven down to 150℃
- Season your crackers with desired toppings
- Cook for 7-10 minutes. Cooking times may vary due to thickness of cracker. Please keep a watch after the 6 minute mark and remove any crackers that are lightly golden and firm when tapped with your finger tip.
- Allow to cool before serving


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PFBA 25th Anniversary Video
Learn what the last 25 years have meant to some of our family business members and what has been accomplished by these families. A tribute to Prairie Family Business Association's 25th Anniversary.
PFBA Highlight Video
Prairie Family Business Association - celebrating 25 years of serving family business leaders.
PFBA Overview Video
Learn about what features and benefits Prairie Family Business Association has to offer its members - from the Annual Conference is the #1 networking event in the region with national and local speakers, consultants, and valuable information - to monthly webinars, networking, and more!


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UThis sequel to the first film, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, premiered in theaters on March 8, 1996. The VHS of this movie was released on July 30, 1996. The DVD version was released on April 23, 2002.
Your favorite trio of talking animals is back in this action-packed Disney adventure that'll have the whole family bursting with excitement and laughter! Michael J. Fox, Sally Field and Ralph Waite supply the voices of Chance, the American bulldog; Sassy, the Himalayan cat; and Shadow, the golden retriever -- and Sinbad speaks for their newfound canine friend, Riley -- in this critically acclaimed sequel to Disney's now-classic Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. When the pets accidentally get separated from their vacationing owners, Chance, Shadow and Sassy navigate the mean streets of San Francisco, trying to find their home across the Golden Gate Bridge. But the road is blocked by a series of hazards, both man and beast. It's another incredible journey for the three very brave, very loveable pets, in a thrilling, funny adventure that's "bound to please" (New York Post) the entire family!
VHS Supplements
|Creation date
|Green warning screens
|September 7, 1991
|Walt Disney Home Video logo
|June 19, 1992
|Coming Soon to Own on Videocassette
|October 25, 1994
|Video preview for Aladdin and the King of Thieves
|June 25, 1996
|Video preview for Muppet Treasure Island
|April 24, 1996
|Video preview for Oliver & Company
|April 30, 1996
|Video preview for James and the Giant Peach
|July 30, 1996
|Feature Presentation
|October 25, 1994
|Full Screen Format Disclaimer
|January 22, 1994
|Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco
|March 8, 1996
Advertised on:
- Muppet Treasure Island (VHS) (UK version)
- The Santa Clause (VHS) (UK version)
- James and the Giant Peach (Demo VHS)
In Other Countries
|Country of origin
|Release date
|February 21, 1997 (VHS)
Television broadcasts
Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco first aired on the Disney Channel on August 30, 1997, and on ABC on July 30, 2000, where it aired once more the following year, on July 22, 2001. One time, the movie aired on off-network syndication on August 1, 2009. It aired on The Hub for one year beginning on September 20, 2013. Like the first film, it currently airs on premium cable networks.


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Search the Community
Showing results for tags '77255'.
Found 2 results
77255: Bronzeheart, Minotaur Hero
Geoff Davis posted a topic in Show OffWell, at least he didn't end up on my shelf of shame. Some days my eyes and hands just aren't up to the job. I also learned today that blending metallics is really hard. Much more practice is needed. I am pleased with the way the lighting effect worked out, though.
Siri's Bones Mass-Paint #6: Minotaurs and Beastmen
Sirithiliel posted a topic in Show Off77252: Beastman Warrior 1 77253: Beastman Warrior 2 x2 77254: Beastman Champion 89033: The Horned Hunter 77251: Bloodhoof, Minotaur Barbarian 77255: Bronzeheart, Minotaur Hero xxxxx: Beastman/Pirate Conversion


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With my file submission, I agree to the following not-so-scary terms:
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All the activities you can imagine
Find the best Restaurants in Link Hills, Pinetown, Hotels in Link Hills, Pinetown, Furniture in Link Hills, Pinetown...
We've made a selection with all you can imagine
Do you own a business?
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Financing Programs
Account Receivable Factoring
Account receivable factoring, is a great way to help manage cash flow by providing you with an alternative to traditional bank loans. It is the selling of accounts receivable or invoices in order to secure immediate, working capital (cash) instead of waiting for longer periods. Accounts receivable factoring frees up your time for higher-value activities, reduces stress, and frees up working capital.
Factoring has been used by businesses for many centuries but as twentieth century brought great change to the way industries work. Businesses started realizing that they need more and more working capital to counter the competition. And factoring provided the perfect solution for companies facing cash-flow problems.
If your business provides products or services on credit to customers
on net terms, as per terms you must wait for a perios before you
can actually get paid. In other words accounts receivable are future
payments that you are allowed to collect for goods or services provided
after an agreed amount of time.


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Mosab Hassan Yousef, a Palestinian, takes the floor at the UN to tell tyrants that their support for Palestinian "leadership" betrays the people.
I don't have anything to add. Just watch this amazing video:
Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.
The expression that "when it rains, it pours" has taken on a bit of significance in my life. As you know, after a hiatus from working, brought about in part by the recession hitting my clients and in part by the demands of an elderly parent and a household, I took a break from legal work. I went back to work last month when my oldest and favorite client needed my help. Then, on Saturday, two clients from whom I haven't heard in years (2008 and before) both called me looking for help. Since I have the self-employed person's ethos of never saying "no" when work comes calling, I said yes.
Before I dive in mountains of rather dull legal work, here are some interesting links:
The bar is set very high for being called an Islamic radical
In a biting post, Sultan Knish points out that it takes a lot to be called an Islamic radical. And when I say it takes a lot, I mean an awful, awful lot — because, for the most part, the radicals engage in precisely the same behavior one sees in Islamic nations around the world that aren't considered "radical" at all. And then, when a group such as ISIS pushes the envelope, going beyond even what UN member states would do, Obama and Kerry insist that these groups aren't Islamic at all. As Humpty Dumpty understood, whoever controls the definitions of words wins.
This day has offered an embarrassment of riches when it comes to interesting news and good posts. Without further ado….
This goes to my earlier point about the degradation of black culture at white elitist hands: Towson University's all-black Team won a national debating championship using incoherent babble sprinkled with obscenities (including the "n" word) and rap. What they did wasn't debating, it was performance art, since it's apparent that the participants actually speak very good English. The judges manifestly rewarded them, not for their debating skills (there were none), but for the art of ghetto culture. The brilliant and uplifting contributors to the Harlem Renaissance would be appalled.
If you want to know about a culture, look at how it treats its dogs. The DiploMad remembers his time in Pakistan, and it's not pretty.
Millennials have bought into Leftist thinking hook, line, and sinker — and small wonder, because their political view basically boils down to "free things," for you, for me, for everyone. None of them seems to have given a thought to the fact that someone has to pay for those "free" things.
I wrote earlier about the Democrats' push to position the mayor of San Antonio to be the next vice president, never mind that, in 2016, his political experience will have been a decorative stint in meaningless "political" job, followed by a couple of years at HUD. Seth Mandel thinks there's a logic behind this, and it's not just identity politics. Instead, its bureaucrat politics: The Democrats envision a bureaucratic state, with the White House a mere figurehead. Read his post. It explains the idea very well.
Thirty-four years later, I'm still embarrassed that I voted for the antisemitic Jimmy Carter. Now I've got something new to be embarrassed about: A little over a year ago, I included in one of my "just because" music posts Macklemore's "Thrift Shop." I noted that it was vulgar and obscene, but I still liked a song that seemed to tell teenagers to get over their designer labels and obsession with products as part of social status. It turns out that Macklemore makes Carter look philosemitic. He chose to perform that song in a costume that was a dead ringer for the worst Nazi propaganda. Even more despicable was the fact that this man who claims exquisite sensitivity towards the oppressed (if they're gay) and towards all faiths (apparently except for Jews) asserted that he was just pretending to be a witch with a beard.
To no one's surprise, all the usual shriekers about racism (those savaging Sterling's senile maunderings, for example) have been remarkably quiet. The only push back came from Seth Rogen, who did it brilliantly. I fear, though, that Seth Rogen alone is not enough. It just goes to show (again), that those on the side of true tolerance are bad at screaming loudly when offended.
Despite Macklemore's despicable behavior and the strange hush that followed it, I am getting the feeling that people of good will are starting to realize that, if they don't push back, America's decline will be swift and final. The movement at UCLA to delegitimize Israel through the BDS movement, rather than being met with mere hand-wringing, is instead facing growing opposition.
One of the worst things about fighting an ideologically-driven enemy seeking totalitarian dominance is that, to a certain extent, to defeat that enemy, you must become like that enemy. You cannot ever rest, and you must fight on every front, both clean fights and dirty ones.
And just so you know, no matter the topic, Obama's really angry. He's not actually going to do anything, but he will emote for you:
I'm juggling family and work right now, so cannot blog at length (something that plagued me yesterday as well). Still, I have four articles I think you might like to read.
One: I've ruminated often here about the nature of heroism. I'm not talking about the Leftist version of heroism, which is to stand up in a room full of Leftists and say "George Bush is stupid." I'm talking about real heroism, of the type displayed on the battlefield by Medal of Honor winners (and many who aren't so honored), or in daily life, when one hears about the incredible risks people take to rescue strangers. I'm physically cowardly, and I'm plagued by chronic analysis paralysis. The Anchoress, who is not a coward, nevertheless writes about her moment with analysis paralysis. I think she's too hard on herself, since she was analyzing a possible threat, rather than dealing with a real one. Even more interestingly, the Anchoress writes from a Christian perspective, which adds another layer to her ruminations.
Two: All I can say is that this is one woman who must have a very peculiar sex life if her mind works this way. (H/t: Sadie)
Three: It's shocking that Dakota Meyer's translator at the Battle of Ganjgal, in Afghanistan, cannot get a visa to the U.S. Here's a view from a Military Times blog, and here's the write-up I did at Mr. Conservative. As you read about this, you'll probably think of the Pakistani doctor who helped us catch bin Laden, but who is languishing in a Pakistani prison. The rule in America under Obama is that the American government (especially the State Department) will abandon you if you serve us with your life: we'll abandon you in Afghanistan, and in Pakistan, and in Benghazi. There are no limits to how badly we will treat our friends.
Four: I mentioned in an earlier post Dennis Prager's article about the fact that several self-righteous Leftist publications have announced that, regardless of what the Redskins' management, players, and fans want, these magazines will never again sully their paper or electronic pages with the evil "R" word. I was especially struck by the way Prager, attacking The Atlantic's explanation for supporting this stand, honed in on the perverse moralizing that characterizes the Left:
Argument Four is the key argument, offered by The Atlantic, in its support of Slate:
"Whether people 'should' be offended by it or not doesn't matter; the fact that some people are offended by it does."
Response: This is classic modern liberalism. It is why I have dubbed our age "The Age of Feelings."
In a fashion typical of progressives, the Atlantic writer commits two important errors.
First, it does matter "whether people 'should' feel offended." If we ceased using all arguments or descriptions because "some people" feel offended, we would cease using any arguments or descriptions. We should use the "reasonable person" test to determine what is offensive, not the "some people are offended" criterion.
Teaching people to take offense is one of the Left's black arts. Outside of sex and drugs, the Left is pretty much joyless and it kills joy constantly. The war on the "Redskins" name is just the latest example.
Second, it is the Left that specializes in offending: labeling the Tea Party racist, public cursing, displaying crucifixes in urine, and regularly calling Republicans evil (Paul Krugman, in his New York Times column last month, wrote that the Republican mindset "takes positive glee in inflicting further suffering on the already miserable.") For such people to find the name "Redskins" offensive is a hoot. (Emphasis mine.)
Please read the whole thing.
There's been a lot of upset in the conservative blogosphere about Obama's drone strike policy. The way the administration phrased it, as "legal," "ethical," and "wise," got a lot of hackles up, especially when Michael Isikoff let slip how little oversight there is — including oversight over decisions to kill American citizens.
A lot of people are very worried about this, because they see a government that feels unfettered by the protections accorded citizens under the Bill of Rights. The problem, as conservatives see it, isn't so much what the administration does, but the attitude it has when it does it. Thus, the administration manifestly refuses to acknowledge that the rights stated in the Bill of Rights are inherent in all citizens and that the government has the burden of proving good cause to implicate or limit those rights in any way.
Instead, in every instance, the Obama administration takes the position that government has the inherent power to impinge upon and limit citizen's freedoms, or even take their lives, leaving citizens with the burden of proving that the government has overreached. To the extent that the attitude inverts both the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, people who care about those documents and the unalienable rights they establish and protect are going to view anything the administration does with a jaundiced eye.
Rusty Shackleford, however, who knows as much about Al Qaeda and other Islamist extremists as anyone else on this earth, tells conservatives not to get too uptight about those American citizens that the Obama administration targets for drone killing. These people aren't just any old Americans. Instead, they are citizens who have deliberately thrown their lot in with al Qaeda, thereby taking upon themselves enemy status:
If you think it's unconstitutional or immoral to kill a member of a terrorist organization living abroad then you and I have very different readings of the Constitution and very different sets of moral standards.
Moreover, it's just basic common sense that in warfare you don't stop to ask the person you're about to shoot for a copy of their passport. Who gives a rat's ass if bin Laden was Saudi or if he was born in Colorado?
Please, go read the report. Nowhere in it is there even a smidgen of a hint that drones could be used against Americans … in America.
The memo in question sets up a three tiered test for when it's okay to kill an American living — and this is a direct quote from the memo — "in a foreign country".
1) He must be an immanent threat. By immanent, we don't mean the threat is immediate. What we mean is that the person is involved in operations that will go forward unless he is killed. In other words, we don't have to wait for a suicide bomber to get on the airplane before we kill him.
2) Capture is infeasible. This means that a terrorist living in France will be treated differently than a terrorist living in Mali. The major difference being that the French police are perfectly capable (assuming they have the backbone) of arresting a suspected terrorist. In the hinterlands of Mali, not so much.
Please read the rest of Rusty's post here. It will assuage some of your worries about the administration's acts.
Having said all that, I still think Obama is a rotten stinker for what he's doing. I'm not saying that it's bad to kill al Qaeda operatives wherever and whenever we find them in a foreign country, and regardless of whether they are American or non-American. Rather, my view arises because Obama is a hypocrite who hasn't had the decency to come before the American people and say that he was wrong to malign George Bush and our troops as rabid killers.
Nick Gillespie, who has the true libertarian's disdain for these killings (and I don't necessarily agree with him, but I do admire his consistency), perfectly sums up Obama's disgusting double standards:
There is a darkly comic aspect to this, I suppose: Here's a president who once taught classes in constitutional law and swore up and down that America doesn't torture, that he was against "dumb wars" waged by his predecessors, that he was more transparent than a glass of triple-filtered water, and who won a goddamned Nobel Peace Prize! And he turns out to be not just a little iffy when it comes to being constrained in his willingness to break all sorts of rules but downright godawful.
And his main mouthpiece is a former MSM drone whose babyface is quickly turning into a map of wrinkles brought on by working for an administration which has manifestly failed to live up to even the mediocre standards of the previous occupant of the White House.
The same president who sounded all high and mighty about Gitmo and the fact that American troops are "air raiding villages and killing civilians" seems to have no problem with going into Pakistan, a country with which we're not at war, and, once there, drone raiding villages and killing civilians.
Unlike Gillespie, I believe that the Bush people were doing the right thing in their battle against an amorphous enemy that transcends borders and draws fellow travelers from myriad nations. In that regard, it's telling that the Bush administration had so many good things going there that Obama, in one of the few wise acts of his presidency, built upon their original programs.
What's sickening is that Obama has never retracted his attacks against those Americans who spent so much time during the Bush years defending us and, when he does the same thing (only more so), he has his flunkies announce that, because it's The Won who's killing and torturing, it's suddenly legal, ethical, and wise. Along these lines, don't forget that Eric Holder spent almost four years wrecking havoc in the lives of CIA agents who used techniques less bad than those Obama now countenances, and only let them off the hook this past August.
Bottom line: there are few things more loathsome than someone who yells at you and humiliates you for doing something, then does the same thing himself, and, if you call him upon it, says that the mere fact that it is he who's doing it, not you, makes it all right.
Back in 2004, when George Bush was president, Michael Moore compared al Qaeda terrorists to American Minutemen:
The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win.
Moore's shallow brain and inadequate education left him incapable of distinguishing between people who fight for individual liberty and people who fight for world domination and mass slavery. He'll root for sadistic murderers as long as they're anti-capitalists. He has no sympathy for people like Daniel Pearl, Nick Berg, Wesley Batalona, Scott Helvenston, Jerry Zovko, or Michael Teague.
Back then, Moore was not alone. You'll recall that he spoke for a vociferous, angry, and large percentage of Americans who vigorously opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — wars that Bush began with both Congressional and NATO approval — because we were a big mean bully harming innocent Iraqi women and children as part of our sadistic and delusional war against some amorphous "terror" thangy. Buoyed up by a tide of anti-War righteousness, Britain's left-wing Lancet, once a respectable medical publication, posited that Americans had killed 650,000 Iraqi civilians, a report that was quickly debunked.
The debunking, of course, didn't stop the antiwar uproar that had Americans taking to the streets with great regularity denouncing Bush as a Hitler-esque war criminal, and calling American troops baby killers. Underpinning all of this antiwar fervor was the Lefts' contention that terrorists were not a problem, that we just needed to show them a little understanding, and that Bush was grossly overreacting by taking the battle to the terrorists themselves.
Fast forward to 2012. Stories are starting to appear in the U.S. press saying that Obama's drone attacks — each of which he allegedly approves personally, after carefully selecting the target he wants dead — are killing and wounding thousands of civilians, including women and children, in Pakistan:
U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan have killed far more people than the United States has acknowledged, have traumatized innocent residents and largely been ineffective, according to a new study released Tuesday.
The study by Stanford Law School and New York University's School of Law calls for a re-evaluation of the practice, saying the number of "high-level" targets killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low — about 2%.
"TBIJ reports that from June 2004 through mid-September 2012, available data indicate that drone strikes killed 2,562 – 3,325 people in Pakistan, of whom 474 – 881 were civilians, including 176 children. TBIJ reports that these strikes also injured an additional 1,228 – 1,362 individuals," according to the Stanford/NYU study.
Based on interviews with witnesses, victims and experts, the report accuses the CIA of "double-striking" a target, moments after the initial hit, thereby killing first responders.
Did I mention that we're not at war with Pakistan? Indeed, it's nominally still an ally of ours in the war against Islamic terrorists. That hasn't stopped Obama. What's worse is, that aside from a few Leftists who are unwilling to tolerate any sort of American actions against terrorists (which is a principled stand, even if often a foolish one), Progressives, Democrats, and other people on the Left are not only quiet about this, they think it's a good thing.
On my Facebook page, I did I quick post drawing people's attention to these drone strikes, and highlighting the huge number of collateral deaths occurring, not just on Obama's watch, but under his direct orders. The responses I received from my liberal friends surprised me. Really surprised me. I will not quote them verbatim, because I haven't asked for permission to do so (and won't ask), but I can accurately summarize them as follows, simply by rephrasing people's actual words:
What can we do? We can't negotiate with Al Qaeda and the Taliban. If they're hiding among civilians, innocent people are going to get killed, but that fact alone can't stop us from going after the bad guys. I hate that this killing is happening, but better that their kids die from drone strikes, than that our American children die in terrorist attacks. I'm totally liberal, but I'm a pragmatist when it comes to the fact that Obama is doing a job that needs to be done, and everyone who criticizes him is a whiner who hates him.
So, to recap: Al Qaeda kills 2,996 Americans, and boasts about it. George Bush gets credible information that Saddam Hussein is seeking to build a nuclear weapon, and that he is funding, sponsoring, training, etc., Al Qaeda terrorists. Bush also gets credible information that the Taliban regime in Afghanistan is doing the same, except for the nuclear weapon part. Only much later do we learn that Hussein's nuclear weapons program may not have been as advanced as originally thought, with the misinformation in large part originating with Hussein himself, as he tried to portray himself as a regional strong man. Armed with this information, Bush is able to create a coalition of many nations and to get Congressional approval to wage war against nations that host and aid Al Qaeda.
The argument from conservatives was and is that (1) al Qaeda declared war on us; (2) because it has no nation of its own, the only thing we can do is attack it in those countries that willingly and generously support it; and (3) if al Qaeda chooses to use innocents as shields that proves how depraved al Qaeda is, but cannot stop us in our righteous fights against true evil doers. Incidentally, this is also the same argument that Israel and her supporters make: Israel has repeatedly made concessions in order to get peace; Palestinians have made it plain that their sole goal is Israel's destruction; and the high numbers of fatalities amongst women and children occur because Palestinians are evil enough to use innocents as their shields.
Throughout the Bush years, that argument was unpersuasive to the Left. Now that we have a Leftist president, though, one who personally picks the day's target in an allied country, and who supports a policy that inevitably kills innocents who are not even in a combat zone, everything is suddenly hunky-dorey. It's all good because Obama is doing it.
I find this sickening. It bespeaks a moral vacuum that has no boundaries. Leftists are incapable of clearing away the ideological brush and focusing on core moral issues. The only core moral issue is Leftism. You're either for it or you're against it. If a conservative does things, they're bad; if a Leftist does things that are infinitely worse, and illegal, they're fully justified. Just sickening.
For years at this blog (and others) when we've written about Europe's problems, we've focused primarily, not on the economy, but on those Muslim immigrants. One of the things that we talked about a lot was the fact that these same Muslim immigrants subsisted largely on public benefits.
This little tidbit emerged with force during the riots in France, when we first learned that the banlieues that housed the rioters were welfare cities. The European paradigm was for Muslims to show up, from Pakistan, from Turkey, from North Africa, and to be showered with the European's post-colonial guilt payments.
So I have a question for you: What's going to happen with all those Muslim immigrants now that Europe is broke? Riots? Civil War? Quiet retreats back to their home countries?
It seems we've propped up Pakistan long enough. It's no longer a duplicitous ally. Instead, as Islamists have penetrated further and further into its political and military ranks, it's now becoming an active enemy:
On Thursday, Adm. Mike Mullen told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Pakistan was using 'violent extremism as an instrument of policy' and said the Haqqani network, Af-Pak's deadliest militant outfit, 'acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Internal Services Intelligence Agency.' Mullen further explained that Pakistan was using militant proxies to 'hedge their bets' in Afghanistan, adding, 'in reality, they have already lost that bet.' To be sure, independent analysts and former government officials have been airing such complaints for years. But never in the long, dark history of the Afghan war have serving officials so unequivocally called Pakistan to account for its double game.
You can see the rest here.
This rupture was inevitable. If the U.S.-Pakistan had been bride and groom, they would long ago have been featured in a "Can this marriage be saved" column, along with sage advice that, no, it cannot. An open rift will, of course, impose significant tactical and strategic changes on our military, but I have great faith in our military's adaptability. And indeed, with Obama at the helm for another 15 or so months, the Pakistan situation may be the least of our military's problems.
He's not in a uniform, but Raymond A. Davis, former Special Forces soldier, and current CIA operator and prisoner in Pakistan is a soldier for American interests. Our own government has admitted that he "was part of a covert, C.I.A.-led team collecting intelligence and conducting surveillance on militant groups deep inside the country." When he was attacked as part of a robbery, he fired on the robbers, killing both.
The New York Times also reports that this may not have been a straight forward robbery. The implication is that Davis blatantly committed a crime. My suspicion, if it wasn't a garden-variety robbery, is that Davis was attacked as part of his line of work.
When help finally came Davis' way, the driver of the rescue vehicle managed to run over another Pakistani. Davis, who theoretically has diplomatic immunity, found himself arrested, thrown into a Pakistani prison, and made a cause celebre to the radicals and credulous street in Pakistan.
The Pakistani government, which has known all along about his CIA affiliation, is now hamstrung by the radicals on the street. They want Davis dead, and Pakistan is afraid of those radicals. However, given that Davis has diplomatic immunity, killing him is a problem.
Davis, of course, is in an even worse situation than the Pakistani government. He's in a Pakistani prison, and has to hope that the government, to make its own life easier, doesn't simply turn its back and allow a lynch mob in.
In a spy movie, the Americans and Pakistanis would arrange for Davis to be snuck out of the country, with no one the wiser. This isn't a spy movie, though, and I don't think there's enough competence between the two countries right now to arrange for a "no one the wiser" scenario. It seems, right now, as if Davis' best hope is prayer — which he certainly deserves for repeatedly putting himself on the line in the service of this country.
As I write this, Obama hasn't spoken yet, but he has released excerpts from his speech. These are my first thoughts on his words:
"The 30,000 additional troops that I am announcing tonight will deploy in the first part of 2010 – the fastest pace possible – so that they can target the insurgency and secure key population centers. They will increase our ability to train competent Afghan Security Forces, and to partner with them so that more Afghans can get into the fight. And they will help create the conditions for the United States to transfer responsibility to the Afghans." [This is good. This is what Obama needed to do. It's one thing as a candidate to demand that the sitting president lose the war. It's another thing entirely for the former-candidate, now-president to preside over another 1975. Having spent ten, agonizing, demoralizing months trying to figure this one out, Obama is finally doing the right thing.]
"Because this is an international effort, I have asked that our commitment be joined by contributions from our allies. Some have already provided additional troops, and we are confident that there will be further contributions in the days and weeks ahead. Our friends have fought and bled and died alongside us in Afghanistan. Now, we must come together to end this war successfully. For what's at stake is not simply a test of NATO's credibility – what's at stake is the security of our Allies, and the common security of the world." [Is it just me, or did Obama completely avoid that old-fashioned word "victory" or that nice little phrase "win the war"? Obama is such a Leftist he really cannot contemplate the possibility of a "we win, you lose" scenario. To him, success is manifestly a way out, victory or not (and see the next paragraph to get what I mean). Also, unless Obama expands upon it in his speech tonight, he's said nothing about the nature of the threat against us. To say that "security" is "at stake" is meaningless without explaining who the enemy is, and what an enemy victory means. Given the Islamists' willingness to spell out in words of one syllable their plans regarding the West, Obama should be able to articulate the danger they pose. Again, he simply can't seem to make himself say certain words: "The Taliban, a fundamentalist branch of Islam that sheltered and trained the terrorists who killed more than 3,000 Americans on 9/11, is resurgent and spreading. It must be cut out, root and branch, in order to ensure that its members' willingness to attack us directly, and indirectly (by taking over our allies, such as Pakistan), is destroyed." See? It's simple — but not for Obama.]
"Taken together, these additional American and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011. Just as we have done in Iraq, we will execute this transition responsibly, taking into account conditions on the ground. We will continue to advise and assist Afghanistan's Security Forces to ensure that they can succeed over the long haul. But it will be clear to the Afghan government – and, more importantly, to the Afghan people – that they will ultimately be responsible for their own country." [Here's the kicker to the two preceding paragraphs. Obama is not in this for victory against a determined and violent enemy that has already attacked America and Europe and that continues to threaten to West's security. Instead, he's adding troops as a predicate to an orderly retreat. He doesn't want to win. He wants to escape. Obama has also done something incredibly stupid by announcing his date of departure. If I were the Taliban, I'd simply retreat into caves for a couple of years, wait for Americans to withdraw, and then return to the field. Obama should announce that U.S. and allied forces will depart when the war against the Taliban has achieved certain milestones, not when a specific date hits on the calendar.]
Bottom line: Obama's doing the right thing (thank God), but for the wrong reasons. The question is whether our strong and determined American military can achieve victory when the Commander in Chief (a) refuses to name the enemy and is afraid of the "V" word and (b) has given the enemy a specific time line, after which they are free to pursue their theocratic totalitarian goals?
UPDATE: Well, the speech is over and done now. I gather that Obama did spell out more clearly what the threat actually is, but for the most part that he tracked along the excerpts I discussed above. I also gather that I, although unversed in military strategy, pretty much caught onto the myriad flaws in the approach. Otherwise, how could I have tracked so closely with Steve Schippert's informed analysis?
I realize that, with readers all over the world, speaking about "morning" is a bit silly, but I can only function according to the rules of my own time zone. I'm up, but so are the kids, and the "getting ready for school" drill is in full swing. It's definitely morning for me, and will be for another hour. Fortunately, friends emailed me two fascinating articles for those of you who are already well into your day and have the luxury of a bit of reading time right now.
The first is an American Spectator article by Patrick O'Hannigan, in which he focuses on the direct line between Obama's background as a community organizer and his failures as a president. I always enjoy Patrick's writing, but I have to say that I think this is one of his best, filled with truly deep thoughts, carried along on a river of elegant writing.
The second article, which intelligence analyst extraordinaire Steve Schippert recommended to me, is a very worrying analysis of the situation in Pakistan. You won't feel better after reading this article, but you'll definitely feel more informed. It goes without saying that our community organizer in chief hasn't yet figured out a way to deal with this situation. (And I very much doubt that his upcoming Afghanistan speech will change that fact.)
I promised you two, but I'll give you three: Is it any surprise that the UN is completely ignoring, not only the fact that a major CRU committed fraud, but the even more significant fact that this same group felt compelled to commit fraud? You don't commit fraud when the truth is on your side. You commit it when you have to sell people on a lie or, at the very least, when you don't believe in what you're selling.


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Sunny and the Royal Party: Palace Puppies
Laura Dower & John Steven Gurney
Hyperion, 2013 (2013)
Softcover, e-Book
Reviewed by Jessica Maguire
rincess Annie has her very own puppy, a dainty goldendoodle named Sunny. Prince James also has a puppy, a rambunctious Beagle named Rex.
ife is good for the palace puppies. There are '
loads of smelly smells, and bugs to swat, and cool grass everywhere ...
' But today neither Sunny nor Rex is getting the attention they usually have from Annie and James and they want to know why!
ollow the usually well-behaved Sunny and the mischievous Rex as they cavort around the palace spying on Annie and James, trying to discover what all the secrecy is about. They find party decorations and an irresistibly yummy great big cake!
ut who is the party for? Will the puppies get caught? Will Sunny and Rex eat the yummy cake before the party even starts?
o find out, pick up this chapter book, for seven to ten year olds, with its wonderful illustrations by John Steven Gurney. Happy reading!
Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons.
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It is an exciting time of growth for arts groups in downtown Duluth. From the HART District on one end and the Duluth Art Institute on the other, the downtown arts community is thriving and looking to attract local and seasonal visitors to a monthly, year round Downtown Arts Walk. The inaugural event will take place on Friday, June 29th as a way to unite, revitalize, and enrich the community through the arts.
The Downtown Arts Walk is the creation of The Downtown Duluth Arts Collective. Together, they represent more than 25 arts businesses/groups, individual artist studios and cultural centers that will be participating: 315 Gallery at the Washington Co-op, AICHO (Galleries, Dr. Robert Powless Cultural Center, Indigenous First Art & Gifts) , Arola Architecture Studios, Art in the Alley, Blush, CF design ltd, Duluth Art Institute (DAI), Duluth Coffee Company, Mavis. Designer Showroom, Joseph Nease Gallery, Legacy Glassworks, Lizzard's Gallery, the Nordic Center, Pineapple Arts Building: the Pineapple Arts store, UMD Faculty Studios, Alison Aune Studio, Kirsten Aune Textiles, Magic Smelt Ship Shop, The Tight Squeek Press Shop, Prøve, Rockingchair Studio, The Red Herring, Tischer Photographic Gallery, Wagner Zaun Architecture, and Zeitgeist Arts.
Activities during the Downtown Arts Walk will range along the creative spectrum, including: art exhibits, gallery talks, art demonstrations, musical performances and more. The monthly Arts Walk will begin at 4 PM and go on into the late night downtown scene. This is a walkable night of entertainment that all ages can enjoy, as we partner with neighborhood eateries, bars and performance venues to provide further incentives to come out and celebrate downtown arts culture. Event venues will be participating in the Walk during staggered times and information about venues and the times can be found on the Downtown Duluth Arts Walk Facebook page (@DuluthArtsWalk).
Additional Arts Walks are planned for July 27th, August 31st, September 28th and October 26th, with November and December dates to follow.


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When we are talking sometimes, we are unconsciously doing some gestures with the use of our hands. This body language helps us to make other people understand fully what we are trying to say. This will be effective in every presentation and to control our audiences to listen and to direct their attention to you. Public speakers use body languages effectively every time they deliver a speech. This is the most effective way to be convincing in front of strangers. This is a presentation skill that you should learn and possess when you stand and talk in front of the crowd. It will take away fear of public speaking and you will feel confident.
Known people are using body language in their entire presentation in order to be rid from their mannerisms. This will make them stay away from the unconscious things they usually do when they are nervous. Tension may come upon reaching the stage. There are some people who can manage this positively and can make a lively and interesting presentation out of it.The body languages you are making in front of the other people should and must be related to the words that will come out from your mouth.There will be a times that you will get emotional upon saying your piece and because you are overwhelmed, controlling your gestures will be difficult for you.In order to engage with your audience, concentrate on the proper emotion you will portray and don't overreact. Right emotions will lead you to have an emotional connection to your audience.
Your contact with your audience will start with your confident entrance till you establish and maintain and eye contact. This will make them feel that you are really committed to your message and you are honest enough with the words that are coming out of your mouth. The way you enter the stage will make your audience react on what they see from you. Don't give them the chance to give a poor and bad impression towards you. Your posture will signify your confidence and will make them conclude that you are smart and intelligent enough to effectively deliver your speech. Some body language you can do before you start your delivery is to smile and raise your eyebrows. This will signify that you are welcoming and make your audience comfortable. If you look comfortable, they will also be relaxed and get them ready to follow you. It will enhance your public speaking skills.
In delivering a piece, you will need body language together with the right pitch of your voice in order for your presentation to be interesting. A monotone voice could be very boring. In all executive speech, body language gives flavor to the presentation. Before you start speaking, you should need to start everything from neutral position with your hands at your side. This will also allow you to relax and to do deep breathing before you begin with your executive speech. Your hand gestures should be clear and appropriate as always. This will make emphasis to the strong points of your speech and this will also lessen the tension the speaker feels.


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We offer a wide range of infographics on issues relating to Renewable Energies. The infographics are free of charge for journalists and may be used according to our terms of use. Initially, the infographics appear in the media library in a 72 dpi version. Users who are logged in can download a high resolution version. For access to the high resolution infographics please apply here.
CO2 emissions from primary energy consumption by state in Germnay 2015
The german states compared to their CO2 emissions.
Primary energy consumption and share of renewables in German states
Primary energy consumption and share of renewables in German states in 2015 and change since 2008
Fossil fuels burden the trade balance
Imports of mineral oil, gas and coal still make up large parts of import spending in many countries.
Sales of fossil motor fuels and biofuels in Germany
While sales of mineral oil have increased, biofuel sales have dropped.
Infographic dossier: Renewable Energy in the hands of the people
Ownership distribution of installed RE capacity for power production in Germany in 2016.
Acceptance of Renewable Energy in the European Union
How important do you think it is that your national government sets targets to increase the amount of renewable energy used, such as wind or solar power, by 2030?
Development of farmers' investment in renewable energy
Planned investment of agriculture operations in renewable energy plants 2009-2017.
The role of bioenergy in Germany's renewable mix in 2016
The infographic shows the role of bioenergy in Germany's renewable mix.
Infographic dossier biofuels
Currently, biofuels are by far the most important source of renewable energy in the EU transport sector. Their future role, however, remains uncertain and disputed.
Getting the energy transition on the road
Renewables have made inroads into the transport sector in areas where they can use existing infrastructure, like liquid biofuels in road transport and railway power supply.
Turnover from the operation of renewable energy plants 2006-2016
The bigger Germany's renewable energy park, the higher the turnover.
Investment in RE installations 2006-2016
The investment in RE installations in 2016 reached 14.2 billion in Germany.


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Self Storage – Centennial Hills
Why Choose Us?
Storage West Centennial Hills is located in the northwest part of metropolitan Las Vegas. The property is on the corner of West Centennial Parkway and North Durango Drive and our address is 8856 West Centennial Parkway, Las Vegas NV 89149. This is Storage West's North West Las Vegas Self Storage location, click here to see other Las Vegas self storage locations.
From the north, take either the 15 or 95 freeways south to the 215 west and exit on Durango Avenue. If you are coming from the south, take the 15 north to the 95 north then take the 215 west and exit on Durango Avenue.
This is a mostly residential area including some shops and businesses. There is a combination of old and new developments. We are the closest Storage West facility to Creech Air Force Base and there are many military families in the neighborhood who use our facility. Our tenants like the fact that the property is clean, easy to access and has convenient access hours. We work hard to keep the property well maintained and looking good. We also pride ourselves on the fact it is very secure because of systems such as surveillance cameras, computerized entry and cylinder locks on our units.
Self-Storage Las Vegas
Storage West offer convenient air conditioned self-storage and mini-storage units in Las Vegas with low prices for 5x10, 10x10, 10x20, and 10x30 storage. We have facilities across the U.S., with many convenient locations across California, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas; so when you search for: "storage units near me," you will find a local storage facility close-by.
Las Vegas NV 89149
Exceptional service.
Anthony was awesome! Great help with my transition from Cali to Vegas. I really his laid back personality and approach to my situation. Very professional and reassuring. Clean, new, air conditioned environment withcadded insurance and security. Best experience, promise. Ask for him!!
I have stored my good at this location many times since it opened. This time was as smooth a transaction as all of the others. Mike knows the business and the facility. He makes maximum effort to keep the clients happy. He would not let me move in to my new spaces as he advised me that it was not clean enough for his and the companies standards. Highly recommend this facility and their manager Mike.


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Dispatch of Dividend Warrants
23 May 2017
Published in Dawn, Jang, Business Recorder, Nawa-i-Waqt, Pakistan Observer Newspapers
GlaxoSmithKline Pakistan limited
We are pleased to inform our valued shareholders that Dividend Warrants in respect of Final Dividend declared for the year ended December 31, 2016 (@ Rs.6/- per share, i.e. 60%) for which Resolution was passed by the shareholders in the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on April 24, 2017 at the Beach Luxury Hotel, Karachi, have been dispatched to the shareholders by Registered Post on May 23, 2017.
In the event that they do not receive their Dividend Warrants within seven (07) days of publication of this notice, Shareholders are requested to contact our Shares Department, 35 Dockyard Road, West Wharf, Karachi-74000. Telephone No. : 32316331.
Dated: May 23, 2017
Company Secretary


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Cool New FIREFLY Geek Art from Otis Frampton
Artist Otis Frampton has created another fantastic Firefly illustration featuring our favorite characters posing in front of Serenity. You can check out his previously released Firefly art here. I love this series, and it would be great if it eventually came back as a live-action or animated series. You never know, anything can happen. I never thought we'd see a Veronica Mars movie or Arrested Development make a comeback.
Click here if you want to buy a print for ten bucks!


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Large Waianae Single Family Home
Wow! What a Value! Freshly painted and professionally cleaned spacious home with large family room, huge master bedroom and wood laminate flooring downstairs. There are a number of upgrades. Locally bank owned. Allow 3 business days for contract acceptance. Sold 'as is.' EZ2C
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, NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 28 Nine Heads of State graced President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto's swearing-in ceremony at the Kasarani Stadium on Tuesday.
The fete, a historic one and a colourful one for that matter was also attended by a number of dignitaries from Africa and special envoys from around the world not forgetting the thousands of Kenyans who gathered at the sports arena to witness Kenyatta take his second and final oath of office.
Those in attendance included Presidents Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Salva Kiir (South Sudan), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Somalia), Edgar Lungu (Zambia), Ian Khama (Botswana), Ismail Omar Guelleh Muhammed (Djibouti), Ali Bongo Ondimba (Gabon) and Hage Geingob (Namibia).
Former Heads of State of South Africa (Thabo Mbeki) and Zambia (Kenneth Kaunda) were also present.
Nigeria, Tanzania, Burundi were among countries who sent their Vice Presidents to witness the swearing-in ceremony that was delayed after the Supreme Court annulled the August 8 election.
Prime Ministers from Senegal, Guinea and Ethiopia were also present to show support for Kenyatta who is now serving his final term in office with his work cut out to unify Kenyans after a prolonged electioneering period.
The event was also attended by various ambassadors representatives of special envoys from China, Japan, United Kingdom, Eritrea among others.
President Museveni, Lungu (Zambia), Gabon's Ali Bongo and Rwanda's Kagame who spoke on behalf of other Heads of State called for a united country and urged Kenyans to work towards developing the nation.