Monday, 27 February 2017
Cincinnati orchestra extends contract with Langree
(FILES) This file photo taken on May 14, 2012 shows French conductor Louis Langree as he takes part in the dress rehearsal of "The Clemency of Titus" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on February 27, 2017 extended its contract with French conductor Louis Langree, who has championed new music and pulled in crowds with an innovative light show. Langree, who took up the baton in the Midwestern city in September 2013, will remain at the orchestra though the 2021-22 season.<br />DIETER NAGL / AFP
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on Monday extended its contract with French conductor Louis Langree, who has championed new music and pulled in crowds with an innovative light show.
Langree, who took up the baton in the Midwestern city in September 2013, will remain at the orchestra though the 2021-22 season.
The conductor in a statement said it was “a privilege to be able to carry out the projects that reinforce the central values of this institution, including being a place of experimentation.”
Langree has led the orchestra for four seasons of free outdoor concerts known as Luminocity, with the music paired with a light show created through projection mapping.
He has also led world premieres of works by prominent young composers including Iceland’s Daniel Bjarnason and New York-based Nico Muhly.
Langree has run the MusicNow Festival of new works alongside Bryce Dessner, the Cincinnati native best known as guitarist of dark indie rockers The National.
In a sign of the orchestra’s rising fortunes, Langree will inaugurate the renovated Cincinnati Music Hall in October following a $135 million makeover.
Langree will also take the orchestra on its first international trip since 2009 in March with concerts in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, followed by a tour of Europe in August.
A former music director of the Opera National de Lyon, Langree has a background in the classic repertoire and separately leads the Mostly Mozart festival at New York’s Lincoln Center.
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Kwara assembly summons MTN over mast installation
Ilorin – The Kwara House of Assembly on Monday summoned the management of MTN Nigeria over alleged “wrong installation’’ of mast at Budo Egba area of Ilorin.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the summon was sequel to a complaint a resident filed before the House Committee on Public Petitions.
The committee’s chairman, Alhaji Adeayo Mohammed, said that the petition was filed by Chief Oladele Olanrewaju, through his counsel, Mr Teju Oguntoye.
According to him the petitioner claimed that the installation of the mast was causing environmental hazard to residents.
Mohammed said the committee would investigate the matter thoroughly and directed MTN management in the state and other stakeholders to appear before the committee on March 3.
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Proposed constitution, Electoral Act amendments: Office-holders with pending cases won’t be sworn in —Nnamani
By Dennis Agbo & Chinedu Adonu
ENUGU— Political office seekers, who have outstanding election petitions hanging over them, would not be sworn into office under proposals being championed by the Senator Ken Nnamani-led Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee, it emerged yesterday.
Senator Nnamani made the disclosure even as Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, blamed the dwindling fortunes of Nigeria’s democratic experiment on inability to conduct a free and fair elections over the years.
Nnamani spoke at the South-East zonal public hearing on proposed amendments to the Constitution and Electoral Act conducted by the Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee.
The hearing, which was attended by political stakeholders from the South-East heard strong proposal for amendments and reforms of both the Electoral Act and the country’s constitution.
Setting the stage for presentations, Chairman of the Committee, Senator Nnamani, said the proposed reform would discourage swearing-in of office holders with cases pending at election tribunals.
Nnamani said the measure would discourage attempts by politicians to win at all costs, noting that politicians were in the habit of deploying unwholesome means to be declared winners following which they would dare their opponents to go to the tribunal.
Nnamani said: “We want to come up with a new system whereby no one can be sworn into office if they have election petitions hanging on their necks. Politicians are fond of fighting to win and saying ‘let us go to court.’
“Experience has shown that majority of the cases in our courts are either pre-election or post-election matters and we want to find a way out of this.
“We want to ensure that after a candidate had spent time to campaign and given the mandate by electorate, such mandates will not be dropped at the court by way of losing in the case.”
Ugwuanyi callsfor reforms
Earlier at the Government House, Governor Ugwuanyi had called for reforms to strengthen the country’s democracy.
He said: “It is a well known fact that our inability to conduct free and fair elections had impacted negatively on our efforts to deepen democracy over the years. Necessary reforms must, therefore, be carried out to resolve all the issues required to be carried out to promote peace and stability in the country,” he said.
Ugwuanyi commended the committee for giving the South-East zone the opportunity to send their views on how to entrench credible, acceptable, violence and rancour-free election in Nigeria.
Stakeholders at the hearing were drawn from the judiciary, political party groups, civil society organizations, the academia and the executive arm of government.
Speaking on the electoral challenges faced by the judiciary in handling both pre and post electoral petitions, Chief Judge of Enugu State, Justice Ngozi Emehelu, demanded extension of 21 days time lag for filling of petitions after elections and the 180 days statutory period within which election petitions are given to be decided upon.
On it part, a civil society group, Transition Monitoring Group, TMG, demanded that the appointment of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and its board members should no longer be left solely to the discretion of the President but should involve the input of the National Assembly, civil society organizations and other relevant stakeholders, adding that section 221 of the constitution should be amended to give room for independent candidacy.
The post Proposed constitution, Electoral Act amendments: Office-holders with pending cases won’t be sworn in —Nnamani appeared first on Vanguard News.
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Sacked Sen. Akpan asked to refund all monies collected while in office
By Henry Umoru, Emmanuel Ayungbe & Chioma Onuegbu
UYO—A Federal High Court sitting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, yesterday, sacked the Senate Committee Chairman on Oil and Gas, Senator Bassey Akpan, representing Akwa Ibom North East senatorial district.
Trial judge, Justice Fatun Riman, in a judgment in the pre-election matter brought before the court by a former House of Representatives member, Elder Bassey Etim, challenging the wrongful substitution of his name with that of Bassey Akpan, as a winner of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, primaries for Akwa Ibom North East senatorial district in 2014 by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, said it was unconstitutional, null and void.
“I have carefully read the written submission of counsel to parties and the replies on point of law and the facts of exhibit placed before me. In consequence, therefore, I enter judgement in favour of the plaintiff, Elder Bassey Etim,” the judge held.
Justice Riman ordered INEC to immediately issue fresh Certificate of Return to the plaintiff as the true and bona fide candidate of Akwa Ibom North East senatorial PDP primaries.
He ordered INEC to set aside the certificate of return issued to Akpan as winner of the 2015 senatorial election.
The judge also ordered that “All monies collected or earned by Senator Akpan during his membership in the Senate to date in whatever source should be refunded to the Federal Government.”
Justice Riman awarded N200,000 cost in favour of the plaintiff, Bassey Etim, against the first and third defendants.
Meanwhile, Senator Akpan and the PDP, yesterday, said that they will appeal the judgment.
Senator Akpan, in a statement, yesterday, said: “This judgment justifies and reflects the biased conduct of Justice Riman throughout the trial of this case which culminated in my petition to the National Judicial Council, NJC, and the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court on November 7, 2016, accusing Justice Riman of bias and antagonism towards me and requesting him to disqualify himself from the case.
“I wish to inform my teeming supporters and the good people of Akwa Ibom North East that this is a pre-election matter and therefore, the judgment of Justice Riman is not final as I have directed my lawyers after their legal briefing on this matter to exercise my rights of appeal to ensure that we get justice at the Court of Appeal.”
On its part, PDP Publicity Secretary, Iniobong Ememobong in a the statement on behalf of the state Chairman, Obong Paul Ekpo, said the party has directed its lawyers to immediately appeal the judgment.
He maintained that Senator Albert was the party’s choice for the Akwa Ibom North East senatorial district, adding that the PDP will stop at nothing to ensure that Albert retains his seat for the senatorial district.
The post Sacked Sen. Akpan asked to refund all monies collected while in office appeared first on Vanguard News.
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CSOs ask Imo Assembly to officially withdraw anti-media bill
By Chinonso Alozie
Owerri — A cross section of Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, yesterday, asked the Imo State House of Assembly to withdraw proposed anti-media law from the Assembly and not on the pages of newspapers and radio stations.
Mr. Emeka Ononamadu of Citizens Centre for Integrated Development and Social Rights, CCIDESOR, stated this while fielding questions from Vanguard in Owerri.
Reacting to what he described as unofficial withdrawal of the bill by the sponsor, Mr. Ugonna Ozuruigbo, who is the Deputy Speaker of House, Ononamadu said it was unacceptable to them that the bill was withdrawn by a mere statement.
He also argued that until the deputy speaker, withdrew the bill from the House, the CSOs would continue to criticize the House of Assembly.
He said: “ Your career is at stake, your livelihood is at stake, your profession is at stake. The danger is not passing this law but the mentality of this law.
Tyranny grows where the press is gagged. I call this bill, anti-citizens bill, because communities must seek approval before a newsletter is published.
“You do not withdraw a bill on the pages of newspapers, radio stations, but at the floor of the House. We want to advise that the mass media must be vigilant in assessing the situation”.
The post CSOs ask Imo Assembly to officially withdraw anti-media bill appeared first on Vanguard News.
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US challenges Kremlin with new Russian TV channel…Read full details
Current Time America news anchor Ihar Tsikhanenko, right, prepares for a broadcast in the offices of Voice of America in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017. Two U.S. government-funded news outlets are launching Current Time, a global Russian-language TV network aimed at providing an alternative to slick, Kremlin-controlled media that critics say spread propaganda and misinformation. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Nearly three decades after it helped topple communist totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe, US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is challenging Moscow again, this time with a new 24-hour TV news channel in Russian.
Officially launched in Prague this month, the “Current Time” channel targets an audience of more than 270 million people, mostly in the former Soviet area, with news and views that provide an alternative to the Kremlin’s version of reality as channelled through state-controlled media.
The new channel’s launch comes as relations between Moscow and the West have hit their lowest point since the Cold War, triggered by Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its military campaign in Syria a year later.
Suspicions also linger in the West about the extent to which the Kremlin may be using the internet and other means to spread fake news that could boost the popularity of pro-Russian politicians, thereby destabilising NATO and the European Union.
Moscow has been quick to denounce the new channel, with prominent Kremlin-appointed talk show host Dmitry Kiselyov — known as Russia’s chief spin doctor — labelling it a scam.
It’s “mostly money laundering under the guise of fighting Russian propaganda,” he said on Russian state TV last week, without elaborating or offering any proof of fraud.
RFE/RL, which reaches 23 countries in 26 languages, has launched the venture jointly with the Washington-based Voice of America.
As the official US international broadcaster, VOA targets more than 236 million people a week in more than 45 languages.
– ‘Need for objective news’ –
For decades, the stations fought a key ideological battle for the West during the Cold War.
Banned across the communist bloc, the stations regularly had their signal jammed by various regimes, but people behind the Iron Curtain still managed to listen in secret to broadcasts that inspired them to oppose totalitarian rule.
Current Time executive editor Kenan Aliyev told AFP the new station, known as Nastoyashcheye Vremya in Russian, has similar aims to win viewers in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
“Our ambition is to gain the audience in this important region which has lately been bombarded by a lot of disinformation, lies and propaganda,” he said.
“We feel there is a need for objective news and we will try to provide this type of service to our audience.”
Current Time programming ranges from breaking news to business, documentaries and even cooking shows. Coverage of issues like poverty, corruption and healthcare also features prominently.
Some programmes focus specifically on the Baltic states, Moldova and Ukraine, all under Moscow’s thumb during Soviet times and now home to significant ethnic Russian populations.
The station broadcasts via satellite, cable and the internet from Prague, where RFE/RL has been based since its 1995 move from Munich.
“Most importantly, we do social media and digital coverage for audiences that are particularly hard to reach, like those in Russia,” Current Time director Daisy Sindelar told AFP.
– Riga: a hub for independent media –
Conceived during the administration of former US president Barack Obama who took a firm line against Moscow over Crimea, the station officially launched its around-the-clock broadcasts under US President Donald Trump, known for his seemingly pro-Moscow stance.
RFE/RL President Thomas Kent says that while the US Congress has approved funding for “decades”, he told AFP that possible federal cost-cutting under the billionaire reality TV star-turned-president could affect programming.
Current Time’s operating budget for this year is $10 million (9.5 million euros).
“We hope that the uniqueness of what we do will help preserve our funding,” Kent told AFP.
Similar channels that operate free of Kremlin control include the BBC’s Russian language service, which is setting up a new bureau in Riga, the Latvian capital.
Ethnic Russians make up a quarter of Latvia’s population of two million people. Authorities in Riga are concerned Moscow is trying to target the country’s largest minority with propaganda designed to destabilise the Baltic NATO and EU state.
Last April, Latvia banned broadcasts by the Russian-language Rossiya RTR TV channel for six months, claiming it had incited hatred and made anti-Ukrainian statements.
Latvian state broadcaster LTV has a Russian-language TV and radio station as well as a news website to draw ethnic Russians away from almost exclusively pro-Kremlin media beamed in from Russia.
Riga has also recently become a hub for independent Russian media who have trouble operating in Russia itself, including the Meduza website run by former journalists from the Russian news site Lenta.ru.
Estonia’s public broadcaster ERR has also created three Russian-language media outlets.
According to a 2016 TNS Emor poll, the stations, including ETV, ETV2 and ETV+, captured an audience of around 20 percent of ethnic Russians who account for a quarter of Estonia’s 1.3 million people.
Vía Uzomedia http://ift.tt/2m0WKXQ
US challenges Kremlin with new Russian TV channel
Current Time America news anchor Ihar Tsikhanenko, right, prepares for a broadcast in the offices of Voice of America in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017. Two U.S. government-funded news outlets are launching Current Time, a global Russian-language TV network aimed at providing an alternative to slick, Kremlin-controlled media that critics say spread propaganda and misinformation. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Nearly three decades after it helped topple communist totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe, US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is challenging Moscow again, this time with a new 24-hour TV news channel in Russian.
Officially launched in Prague this month, the “Current Time” channel targets an audience of more than 270 million people, mostly in the former Soviet area, with news and views that provide an alternative to the Kremlin’s version of reality as channelled through state-controlled media.
The new channel’s launch comes as relations between Moscow and the West have hit their lowest point since the Cold War, triggered by Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its military campaign in Syria a year later.
Suspicions also linger in the West about the extent to which the Kremlin may be using the internet and other means to spread fake news that could boost the popularity of pro-Russian politicians, thereby destabilising NATO and the European Union.
Moscow has been quick to denounce the new channel, with prominent Kremlin-appointed talk show host Dmitry Kiselyov — known as Russia’s chief spin doctor — labelling it a scam.
It’s “mostly money laundering under the guise of fighting Russian propaganda,” he said on Russian state TV last week, without elaborating or offering any proof of fraud.
RFE/RL, which reaches 23 countries in 26 languages, has launched the venture jointly with the Washington-based Voice of America.
As the official US international broadcaster, VOA targets more than 236 million people a week in more than 45 languages.
– ‘Need for objective news’ –
For decades, the stations fought a key ideological battle for the West during the Cold War.
Banned across the communist bloc, the stations regularly had their signal jammed by various regimes, but people behind the Iron Curtain still managed to listen in secret to broadcasts that inspired them to oppose totalitarian rule.
Current Time executive editor Kenan Aliyev told AFP the new station, known as Nastoyashcheye Vremya in Russian, has similar aims to win viewers in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
“Our ambition is to gain the audience in this important region which has lately been bombarded by a lot of disinformation, lies and propaganda,” he said.
“We feel there is a need for objective news and we will try to provide this type of service to our audience.”
Current Time programming ranges from breaking news to business, documentaries and even cooking shows. Coverage of issues like poverty, corruption and healthcare also features prominently.
Some programmes focus specifically on the Baltic states, Moldova and Ukraine, all under Moscow’s thumb during Soviet times and now home to significant ethnic Russian populations.
The station broadcasts via satellite, cable and the internet from Prague, where RFE/RL has been based since its 1995 move from Munich.
“Most importantly, we do social media and digital coverage for audiences that are particularly hard to reach, like those in Russia,” Current Time director Daisy Sindelar told AFP.
– Riga: a hub for independent media –
Conceived during the administration of former US president Barack Obama who took a firm line against Moscow over Crimea, the station officially launched its around-the-clock broadcasts under US President Donald Trump, known for his seemingly pro-Moscow stance.
RFE/RL President Thomas Kent says that while the US Congress has approved funding for “decades”, he told AFP that possible federal cost-cutting under the billionaire reality TV star-turned-president could affect programming.
Current Time’s operating budget for this year is $10 million (9.5 million euros).
“We hope that the uniqueness of what we do will help preserve our funding,” Kent told AFP.
Similar channels that operate free of Kremlin control include the BBC’s Russian language service, which is setting up a new bureau in Riga, the Latvian capital.
Ethnic Russians make up a quarter of Latvia’s population of two million people. Authorities in Riga are concerned Moscow is trying to target the country’s largest minority with propaganda designed to destabilise the Baltic NATO and EU state.
Last April, Latvia banned broadcasts by the Russian-language Rossiya RTR TV channel for six months, claiming it had incited hatred and made anti-Ukrainian statements.
Latvian state broadcaster LTV has a Russian-language TV and radio station as well as a news website to draw ethnic Russians away from almost exclusively pro-Kremlin media beamed in from Russia.
Riga has also recently become a hub for independent Russian media who have trouble operating in Russia itself, including the Meduza website run by former journalists from the Russian news site Lenta.ru.
Estonia’s public broadcaster ERR has also created three Russian-language media outlets.
According to a 2016 TNS Emor poll, the stations, including ETV, ETV2 and ETV+, captured an audience of around 20 percent of ethnic Russians who account for a quarter of Estonia’s 1.3 million people.
Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2m5Fsct
Buhari not critically ill, not in hospital, says Lai Mohammed
Lai Mohammed
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says President Muhammadu Buhari is neither critically ill nor in life threatening situation and there is no cause for alarm.
The minister reiterated this position on Monday in Umuahia at the second town hall meeting for the South East and the launch of national reorientation campaign, “Change Begins With Me’’ in Abia.
The minister, who was asked to tell the country about the health condition of the president and whether there was need for a regular briefing on his health stressed that there was no reason for such briefings.
Mohammed disclosed that the president spoke with him on Saturday in the afternoon and there was no reason for Nigerians to be worried. “ I can say here very boldly and confidently that there is absolutely no cause for alarm. “`Mr president called me at 2.43 p.m. on Saturday and we spoke.
“If Mr president is in the hospital or is critically ill, as minister of information, I will give daily bulletin on his health. “Mr president is neither critically ill nor in the hospital and there is nothing life threatening about the checks he is going through,’’ he said.
Speaking on the state of the economy, the minister said that it was corruption that made the prices of commodities to go up. He noted that no economy in the world could survive the blind and reckless looting perpetrated by the previous administration.
“If one person was found with almost 10 million dollar in an uncompleted house and another with 136 million dollar in fake account and other with N7 billion how can the economy survives the kind of looting. “Naturally the price of commodities will go up.
“These are funds meant for development of infrastructure and for provision of services. “That is why you cannot do anything with the economy without first facing corruption squarely.
“But the good news is that the government is doing both together, as we are fighting corruption, we are also making sure that we are ensuring we are out of recession by investing heavily on infrastructure. Mohammed also pacified the audience who lamented the spate of attacks on farmers by the herdsmen.
He said contrary to the position of some elements who want to destroy the unity of the country, the government was not supporting any section of the country against the other. He said it was purely security issue and it was being handled from both the federal and the state levels.
“I want to make the appeal that the strength of Nigeria is in its diversity and unity. “We have been living together peacefully before and we shall continue to live together peacefully,’’ he said.
Speaking in same vein, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, apologised on behalf of the Federal Government to the farmers who had suffered from the ugly trend.
“We in the Ministry of Agriculture are mostly affected in this crisis and frankly we feel deeply disturbed about it.
“Like the two traditional rulers had said, you asked people to go and farm and there is this problem of herdsmen tormenting them and their cattle eating up their crops.
“It is affecting not only the farmers but the food that they are supposed to produce and sell to the society. “As a farmer, nothing can be more upsetting to wake up and find out that my farm has been destroyed.
They have done it to me and I know how it badly affected me but we will bring the challenge to an end very soon,’’ he said. Ogbeh said the Federal Government is training 3000 agro rangers who will protect farms in different places.
Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2l59M7D
These Photos Of Deepika Padukone Goofing Around Before The Oscars Parties Are Too Cute…Read full details
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Love the caption on the last one. What a cutie!
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Source: Miss Malini
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Ukraine’s first wheelchair model breaks taboos…Read full details
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY OLGA SHYLENKO<br />Ukrainian fashion designer Fedir Vozianovmakes (L) makes adjustments to a creation worn by Ukrainian model Alexandra Kutas, who is in a wheelchair since birth due to cerebral palsy, prior to a photo and video fashion shoot in Kiev on January 25, 2017. Kutas, 23, is Ukraine's first model with a disability to headline a runway event of this level, after covering a long and thorny path for her dream to come true.<br />Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP
When Alexandra Kutas headlined a recent fashion show in Kiev it was not just a personal dream come true but also a victory for disabled people in her homeland Ukraine.
Wearing a long, black dress, she wowed the crowd as she was carried across the catwalk on a wooden throne by four trim men, becoming the first model with a disability to take the lead in a high-profile event in the country.
“I had the idea that I wanted to do a catwalk and show that a girl in a wheelchair can be perceived as a first-class professional”, she told AFP. For 23-year-old Kutas, it was the latest stage in a long journey.
In a wheelchair since birth due to cerebral palsy, she had struggled for years to make it as a model in the ex-Soviet state where disabled people all too often get left behind.
Kutas sent letters to modelling agencies — but the response was always the same polite refusals.
“They told me that I am very pretty, but they do not know how to promote me because the market is still not ready for this”, says Kutas.
– ‘Huge inspiration’ –
Kutas was born in Dnipro city, in the east of Ukraine, and went to an ordinary school. It was a bold step to take in 2000, when inclusive education was rare.
There were no ramps or elevators for special needs children in schools, so Kutas’s father or grandfather had to carry her up the stairs so that she could study with the other children.
“Yes, it was difficult, but it is generally difficult to be a person with limited physical mobility in our country. Everyone knows that,” Kutas says.
In 2012, Kutas was having lunch in a cafe when a photographer approached her and asked if she wanted to become a model.
She agreed and loved the process of having her picture taken so much that she soon began looking for other photographers to work with.
“When I realised that I wanted to do this, there did not seem to be a single model with a disability in the world”, Kutas says, recalling how she conducted a search for role models to follow and found none.
And then she suddenly came across a 1999 show of Alexander McQueen, the late British designer, where Aimee Mullins, a world-class Paralympic athlete, modelled in his statuesque and beautiful prosthetic legs.
“It was a huge stimulus for me, a huge inspiration. I wondered why, if it was possible back then, in 1999, why it could not be possible now for a girl in the wheelchair?”
When the Italian house FTL Moda invited models with disabilities to participate in New York Fashion Week recently, Kutas felt that the world was finally ready for a change.
– ‘Potential is hidden’ –
Fedir Vozianov, a 55-year-old Ukrainian designer, never expected the domestic market to be ready for such a dramatic change.
But when he met Kutas and saw her confidence, Vozianov says he understood that he, himself, was willing to give it a go. “People are not all the same — we are all different in this world”, Vozianov says.
“It would be strange to cut a part of this world off at the podium.” Today Kutas is not only a rising model, but also an adviser to the mayor in her native city.
She helps to adapt the city to the needs of disabled people, which is especially important due to the conflict between government forces and Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s east that has claimed more than 10,000 lives and wounded 23,000 people.
“I know that now is the moment that Ukraine simply cannot miss,” she says.
“It is always possible to grow, to evolve, to do something. The main thing is to create the conditions for these people whose great potential is hidden”.
Vía Uzomedia http://ift.tt/2mF008y
Ukraine’s first wheelchair model breaks taboos
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY OLGA SHYLENKO<br />Ukrainian fashion designer Fedir Vozianovmakes (L) makes adjustments to a creation worn by Ukrainian model Alexandra Kutas, who is in a wheelchair since birth due to cerebral palsy, prior to a photo and video fashion shoot in Kiev on January 25, 2017. Kutas, 23, is Ukraine's first model with a disability to headline a runway event of this level, after covering a long and thorny path for her dream to come true.<br />Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP
When Alexandra Kutas headlined a recent fashion show in Kiev it was not just a personal dream come true but also a victory for disabled people in her homeland Ukraine.
Wearing a long, black dress, she wowed the crowd as she was carried across the catwalk on a wooden throne by four trim men, becoming the first model with a disability to take the lead in a high-profile event in the country.
“I had the idea that I wanted to do a catwalk and show that a girl in a wheelchair can be perceived as a first-class professional”, she told AFP. For 23-year-old Kutas, it was the latest stage in a long journey.
In a wheelchair since birth due to cerebral palsy, she had struggled for years to make it as a model in the ex-Soviet state where disabled people all too often get left behind.
Kutas sent letters to modelling agencies — but the response was always the same polite refusals.
“They told me that I am very pretty, but they do not know how to promote me because the market is still not ready for this”, says Kutas.
– ‘Huge inspiration’ –
Kutas was born in Dnipro city, in the east of Ukraine, and went to an ordinary school. It was a bold step to take in 2000, when inclusive education was rare.
There were no ramps or elevators for special needs children in schools, so Kutas’s father or grandfather had to carry her up the stairs so that she could study with the other children.
“Yes, it was difficult, but it is generally difficult to be a person with limited physical mobility in our country. Everyone knows that,” Kutas says.
In 2012, Kutas was having lunch in a cafe when a photographer approached her and asked if she wanted to become a model.
She agreed and loved the process of having her picture taken so much that she soon began looking for other photographers to work with.
“When I realised that I wanted to do this, there did not seem to be a single model with a disability in the world”, Kutas says, recalling how she conducted a search for role models to follow and found none.
And then she suddenly came across a 1999 show of Alexander McQueen, the late British designer, where Aimee Mullins, a world-class Paralympic athlete, modelled in his statuesque and beautiful prosthetic legs.
“It was a huge stimulus for me, a huge inspiration. I wondered why, if it was possible back then, in 1999, why it could not be possible now for a girl in the wheelchair?”
When the Italian house FTL Moda invited models with disabilities to participate in New York Fashion Week recently, Kutas felt that the world was finally ready for a change.
– ‘Potential is hidden’ –
Fedir Vozianov, a 55-year-old Ukrainian designer, never expected the domestic market to be ready for such a dramatic change.
But when he met Kutas and saw her confidence, Vozianov says he understood that he, himself, was willing to give it a go. “People are not all the same — we are all different in this world”, Vozianov says.
“It would be strange to cut a part of this world off at the podium.” Today Kutas is not only a rising model, but also an adviser to the mayor in her native city.
She helps to adapt the city to the needs of disabled people, which is especially important due to the conflict between government forces and Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s east that has claimed more than 10,000 lives and wounded 23,000 people.
“I know that now is the moment that Ukraine simply cannot miss,” she says.
“It is always possible to grow, to evolve, to do something. The main thing is to create the conditions for these people whose great potential is hidden”.
Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2lip6Jc
My generation has failed Nigeria, says Obasanjo (Read full details)
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo PHOTO: NAN
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday admitted that his generation has failed Nigeria in their efforts at taking it to the ‘Promised Land.’ He, however, quickly added that what they missed out in growing the nation economically, they have been able to deliver in a united and stable country under a democratic dispensation.
Obasanjo spoke in Kaduna during the one-day trade fair seminar of the Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KADCCIMA), where he listed the factors inhibiting the nation’s growth and development.
Obasanjo traced the journey of the country from 1960: “the generation before us gave us and our country independence. Whatever you like, say about them: the Awolowos, Nnamdi Azikiwes, the Sardaunas, Aminu Kanos, Tafawa Balewas and others; they gave us independence, they were not perfect and if you like you can even go from now till tomorrow to condemn what they did, but they gave us independence.”
“These people and my generation laid the foundation for the democracy we enjoy today. Our democracy is not perfect, our democracy is a journey and not a destination and we must continue to improve on it. My sons and daughters, what will your generation do? Condemnation is easy but what will you do?”
Obasanjo listed policy summersault as one of the factors that held Nigeria down. “When I banned the importation of toothpicks, another president came and lifted the ban. When I heard it I quickly got across to him: you unbanned importation of toothpicks? He explained that he did not read the recommendation before he approved. Isn’t that a disaster for a country like Nigeria?”
The former president also faulted the lack of focus and capability of the nation’s leadership in handling the complex economic issues. “Part of our problems is that our leaders were not proactive. If Aliko Dangote and other private sector giants have taken over the refinery that we privatised at that time we won’t have had all the problems of petroleum shortage and all that. But, that was not done.”
“Dangote today is building a refinery capable of producing 650,000 barrels per day. Whereas what we are consuming may not be more than 500,000 barrel per day.”
“Lack of continuity and inconsistency in government and lack of knowledge is also a factor. There was a president, one of the two who came after me. He promised to generate 30,000 megawatts of electricity in 4 years.”
He said: “At that time our maximum from all the power plants in the country was 3, 900 mw. I sent somebody to him that if he can add 3,000 megawatts to what we had, he should be given the highest award in the country. He did not add one megawatt. He probably meant well but his knowledge and understanding was faulty.”
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Tackle high cost of data, panelists urge government at Social Media Week (Read full details)
Director, Public Policy Africa, Facebook, Ebele Okobi (left); Chief Product Officer, Chris Cox and Vice President, Partnership, Ime Achibong at the Media Roundtable during the Social Media Week 2017 in Lagos…yesterday. PHOTO: FEMI ADEBESIN-KUTI
Facebook, with 8.6m Nigerians, now accepts naira payment
High cost of data services and lack of infrastructure have been identified as two major challenges hindering content creation in Nigeria. These challenges, according to the panelists at the first day of the 2017 Social Media Week (SMW) in Lagos, yesterday, required urgent regulatory intervention.
While those challenges persist, content creators have been urged to defy them and tell the Nigerian stories online in a modest way. Meanwhile, Facebook has revealed that about 8.6 million people in Nigeria use the social media platform (Facebook) on mobile daily, adding that 95 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are now on Facebook.
According to the Client Service and Strategy Director, Ventra Media, Tomiwa Aladekomo, there is need to be creative in our story telling “if we are to project Nigeria and indeed the African brand positively to the world.”
Aladekomo, a panelist, said live video was the next step in content creation and development, stressing that people must be allowed to develop and discover contents that are applicable to their situation.
He stressed that live streaming can transform Nigeria’s media landscape if adequately explored and invested in. It is however, still hugely challenged by high data cost and poor infrastructure in Nigeria.
Stressing the need for media to build the right team, experiment and put context to stories, Aladekomo observed that publishers should be concerned about creating reliable content and strategies.
To film maker and Creative Director, Ndani TV, Jadesola Oshiberu, mobiles, especially the smartphones are turning people to global reporters, stressing that live video and streaming helps pass the African message or story across.
In her submission, Nigerian Food and Lifestyle Blogger, Yemisi Odusanya (Sisi Yemmie), affordable data is crucial to getting live streaming work in Nigeria to be able to sell “our stories to global audience.”
The Chief Product Officer, Facebook, Chris Cox, highlighted Nigeria’s status as a hub for innovation and creativity because of its fast-growing mobile technology sector and its vibrant film and music industries.
When Mark Zuckerberg visited Nigeria, one of the requests he heard was for businesses to be able to pay for advertising and other services in naira. In response, Cox said Facebook has started accepting locally issued Nigerian naira cards from new advertisers for payments on its ads platform.
“With 8.6 million people in Nigeria using Facebook on mobile every day, Facebook is a great place for businesses to reach their customers and market their products and services.
Meanwhile, from March 8, Facebook will kick off Boost Your Business, a series of free training sessions designed to help thousands of Nigerian small business owners understand how to leverage digital platforms for growth.
The sessions will be facilitated by trainers led by She Leads Africa in key cities including Lagos, Kaduna, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Ibadan.
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