Another Obama selfie

This time it is First Lady Michelle Obama that's selfie-ing with Bo, the Obama family dog.

Michelle Obama with Bo                  (c) White House Photo

"Selfie" was named 'word of the year' by Oxford Dictionary.
Dictionaries defines it as:
(n.) a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.
It's not a new word -- its origins date to a 2002 posting in an Australian Web forum, according to Reuters -- but that doesn't matter. "The Word of the Year need not have been coined within the past 12 months and it does not have to be a word that will stick around for a good length of time," Judy Pearsall, editorial director for Oxford Dictionaries, tells Reuters.
Oxford's editors say use of the word has gone up a staggering 17,000% in the past year, Reuters reports.

Sugar-coating a deadly health crisis

Does South Africa’s economy need a spoonful of medicine to make our sugar intake go down?

A study – the first of its kind in the country – has revealed that one in five South Africans is eating too much sugar, and that our collective sweet tooth is likely to cause a few cavities in the country’s coffers.
The study, known as the South African National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey (Sanhanes-1) and compiled by the Human Sciences Research Council, conducted surveys and interviews with more than 25 000 people across 500 different areas in South Africa. The findings showed that 19.7% of South Africans were consuming an excessive amount of sugar. Almost 21% reported a family history of high blood sugar as well.
Our sugar high is part of a global trend. A report called Sugar: Consumption at a Crossroads, compiled by the Credit Suisse Research Institute, says that the global consumption of added sugar has "increased dramatically" over the past few decades.
The average person now consumes 17 teaspoons (70g) of sugar and similar sweeteners a day. In certain countries it’s much, much higher. In the United States the average is 40 teaspoons a day, and in Mexico it’s 35.

Zimbabwe's ambassador to Australia: "I can't go back, I fear for my life"

"Zimbabwe's ambassador to Australia has asked for political asylum just days before her term ends saying she fears for her safety if she goes home, media reported on Saturday.
Jacqueline Zwambila, who is a member of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was appointed to Australia to renew ties between the countries after a unity government was formed in Zimbabwe in 2009."
Reuters

Boko Haram: An overview of 2013

The year 2013 is only hours away, yet no respite in sight for the many Nigerians daily tormented by the terror called Boko Haram.  Will the new year be different?
Nigeria's information minister, Labaran Maku, is quoted as saying that the government hopes to stamp out the insurgence in the new year.
"What is clear is that in the year 2013, tremendous success was made and most of the insurgents that infiltrated into other states from the North East when the pressure went there were picked up. Some were picked up as far away as Lagos and Ogun and a number of them are in detention and trial is going on gradually," he said.
No doubt, the government has made little success.  A lot remains to be done.  Thousands of Nigerians are now refugees in Cameroun.  For many of them the fear of Boko Haram seems the beginning of wisdom.

Maternal mortality in Nigeria

More women die during child birth in Nigeria than in Afghanistan, Iraq and India combined, according to figures from the World Bank.  Yet the combined population of these countries is more than ten times that of Nigeria.
In a country where the health of citizens is taken seriously, this is a crisis that requires declaring a state of emergency.  Healthcare administration and management in Nigeria requires drastic overhaul.
But who cares?  Certainly many in Abuja don't.

AK 47, Africa and the curse of a weapon

Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau

The man who invented AK-47, Michail Kalashnikov is dead.  He died Monday, according to Russia Today.  Kalashnikov died peacefully at the age of 94.  He spent much of his life in the Ural Mountains, the region in his home country of Russia where his popular rifle is produced.

One of the terrorists in Kenya's Westgate attack

Kalashnikov's invention is a Russian invention that has found huge market in Africa.  It’s the most common weapon of destruction in Nigeria’s Niger Delta and the northeast where Islamic terrorists and militants continue to engage government in the struggle for power.  

For Africa, the name Kalashnikov is a sad reminder of all that's wrong with the continent; its violent struggles of the part, and present. 

Nigeria’s chief of army standards and evaluation, Major-General Shehu Abdulkadir, recently noted 70 per cent of the 10 million illegal weapons in circulation in West Africa are in Nigeria.  Most of these weapons are AK-47s.  In many corners of Africa, these weapons are favored by political thugs, militants, religious terrorists, drug gangs, kidnappers, autocrats, guerrillas, child soldiers and armed robbers.  

Justine Sacco's apology for offensive tweet

Justine Sacco                (c) abcnews.go.com

Here is the former PR executive's apology as tendered to The Star newspaper South Africa and ABC News:

Words cannot express how sorry I am, and how necessary it is for me to apologize to the people of South Africa, who I have offended due to a needless and careless tweet," Sacco said in the statement. "There is an AIDS crisis taking place in this country, that we read about in America, but do not live with or face on a continuous basis. Unfortunately, it is terribly easy to be cavalier about an epidemic that one has never witnessed firsthand.
For being insensitive to this crisis -- which does not discriminate by race, gender or sexual orientation, but which terrifies us all uniformly -- and to the millions of people living with the virus, I am ashamed.
This is my father's country, and I was born here. I cherish my ties to South Africa and my frequent visits, but I am in anguish knowing that my remarks have caused pain to so many people here; my family, friends and fellow South Africans. I am very sorry for the pain I caused.

The apology came a day after IAC said it had fired Sacco.  "There is no excuse for the hateful statements that have been made and we condemn them unequivocally," InterActive Corp said in a statement.   Hers is a remarkable lesson in How Not To Be a PR.