Containment Efforts Race the Clock in the DRC

Health authorities across Africa are struggling to contain an Ebola outbreak, centered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo). 

There are now more than 1,000 suspected Ebola cases in the DR Congo, and at least 246 deaths. Neighbouring Uganda has reported nine confirmed cases and one death. 

The current outbreak, a rare strain of Ebola known as Bundibugyo, has no proven vaccine and kills about a third of those infected.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said response efforts are being hampered by delays in identifying cases, warning that health authorities are effectively being forced to “play catch-up” as the outbreak expands. Suspected deaths linked to the virus have already surpassed 220. 

Although the WHO continue to assess the international threat level as low, they have raised the risk assessment inside the DR Congo from “high” to “very high”. The latest outbreak has primarily affected eastern regions of the DR Congo, where healthcare systems already face pressure from armed violence, mass displacement, and limited infrastructure. 

The WHO have classified the outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern, reviving memories of past Ebola epidemics that overwhelmed fragile healthcare systems and triggered international alarm. 

The current epidemic, officially declared on May 15, is the DR Congo’s 17th recorded Ebola outbreak since the virus was first identified in 1976. 

Governments across Africa and beyond have introduced measures aimed at preventing the virus from spreading across borders. Rwanda has temporarily closed its border with the DR Congo, while Burundi, Zambia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, and Burkina Faso tightened health screening and sanitary monitoring procedures. Uganda also suspended flights to neighboring DR Congo following the outbreak. 

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) have also expanded their Ebola response operations in eastern DR Congo and neighboring countries, deploying 200 volunteers. They are going door-to-door in communities to explain how the virus spreads, counter misinformation, and encourage early treatment. 

The UN allocated $60 million from their emergency response fund to help contain the outbreak. The WHO have reported the delivery of eleven tonnes of emergency medical supplies to support Ebola response operations in the DR Congo and have already allocated $3.9 million from their Contingency Fund for Emergencies.

FIFA Peace Prize Made Specially for Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump has become the first ever recipient of FIFA's new peace prize at the gaudy and gauche 2026 World Cup draw – a compensatory gift for an ego-bloated leader whose dream of winning the Nobel remains unfulfilled. 

Gianni Infantino, the head of world football's governing body and a close ally of Trump, presented the 79-year-old with the award during the ceremony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on Friday. 

The narration to sing praises for Trump ran through the dodgy list of eight conflicts that Trump claims to have settled during his 10 months in office. It did not mention his extrajudicial killing of dozens of unnamed, untried people on small boats in the Caribbean, nor his loud threats to attack Venezuela. Any chance of VAR on this decision?

The audience who were present was treated to slow-motion video of Trump at the Gaza peace summit – which, in case you didn't know, the killings continue unabated, Trump meeting the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, Trump signing the Abraham accords, Trump with the leaders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda – and of Infantino giving him a thumbs-up like a proud football dad. 

"Thank you very much. This is truly one of the great honours of my life", Trump said with a self-satisfied smug. 

Infantino said Trump won the award for "exceptional and extraordinary" actions to promote peace and unity around the world. 😂😂😂

Once the convoluted draw had concluded, the event ended like a Trump rally with the Village People belting out "YMCA". The president happily got his prize and Infantino got his man.

FIFA announced the annual prize in November, saying they would recognise people who bring "hope for future generations". Of course, their inaugural recipient was hardly a surprise. 

This event has been described as a bizarre mishmash of light entertainment and international affairs, with a little football sprinkled in. In fact, The Athletic called the whole affair "FIFA's carnival of cringe"!

By now, the bewildered world knows Infantino has a tight relationship with Trump.  After all, football's head honcho has visited the White House more than any world leader since Trump's return to office in January. FIFA even opened a new office in Trump Tower in New York. 

The most logistically complex World Cup in history will be held across the United States, Mexico and Canada from June 11 to July 19, with 16 more teams added to the global showpiece, up from the 32 nations involved in Qatar in 2022.

Donald Trump Really Believes He is Peacemaker-in-Chief

US President Donald Trump really believes he is the “peacemaker-in-chief”, even boasting he has ended six wars since he became president. Of course lah, Trump is playing fast and loose with the truth. As he often does. 

Trump and his administration have claimed to have helped settle the conflicts between Israel and Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Cambodia and Thailand, India and Pakistan, Serbia and Kosovo, and Egypt and Ethiopia. 

Yet the claim to have settled those conflicts is egregiously embellished and in some cases contradicted by continued violence in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where both its government and Rwanda-backed rebels, M23, failed to sign a final peace accord in Doha, Qatar scheduled for Monday. 

In Iran, the US carried out its own strikes using bunker-buster bombs against military and nuclear facilities before strong-arming Iran to accept a ceasefire in June. The border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia saw a ceasefire reached in July that was mediated by Malaysia. India has denied that Trump played any role in reaching a ceasefire deal with Pakistan to end days of strikes over the disputed Kashmir territory in May. Egypt and Ethiopia have no deal to settle the root of their quarrel – a Nile River dam constructed by Ethiopia that would divert water from Egypt. And Serbia has denied it had any plans to pursue a war with Kosovo, although Trump took credit for preventing one. 

I've no doubt he is seriously eyeing the Nobel Peace Prize. In fact, he covets it!

Apocalypse Predictions for Africa

I read with disappointment and alarm that in an April 10 interview with CNN, American philanthropist Melinda Gates (left) conveyed her belief that the coronavirus pandemic will have the worst impact in the developing world. It’s a common and all-too-familiar refrain. 

Gates, it seems, decided to single out Africa – she eagerly asserted that she foresees bodies lying around in the street of African countries. 

A day later, it was announced that the United States, where Gates is from, had surpassed Italy in terms of the number of Covid-19 dead – and today, the world knows it has the highest infections and fatalities in the world!

Casting aside that instance of irony and hypocrisy, a United Nations Economic Commission for Africa report in April had likewise painted a doomsday scenario: Anywhere between 300,000 and 3.3 million Africans could lose their lives as a direct result of Covid-19. 

The harrowing prediction of colossal numbers of cases and deaths in Africa is difficult to reconcile with the present growth rate and the reality on the ground. 

In my post yesterday titled “Covid-19 is Still Very Much a Serious Threat”, I had mentioned CGTN Africa’s report of 52,000 cases and 2,000 deaths in Africa.  And this is for a continent with 1.2 billion inhabitants.

Take one example, i.e. the UNECA numbers. If we were to take their lowest projection and marry that with the present growth trajectory, African nations would need to see at least 7.6 million confirmed infections to be able to reach 300,000 fatalities; 84 million people will have to be infected continent-wide for the UNECA projected 3.3 million deaths to happen. 

Hmmm, it makes you wonder if there is any actual benefit in the modelling that “experts” churned out to produce scary stats on Covid-19. And I’m not only referring to Africa but in other places too. 

Of course, many of these "experts" will be quick to decry low rates of infection as being attributed to the lack of testing capacity. And they would point to New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan as exemplary countries which do mass testing and hence, yield low infections and fatalities. 

That is nonsense because if the low numbers are only a result of the lack of testing, African countries should be seeing increased rates of hospitalisations and for sure, deaths, which has not been the case thus far. 

Reckless predictions of mass deaths in Africa are myopic as well as problematic for reasons beyond inaccuracy. They assume that nothing that African countries do can mitigate the spread of the disease and prevent high death tolls. They presuppose that Africans will be happy to just sit back and become passive victims of yet another viral outbreak. 

But many African countries have long experience in dealing with infectious diseases and by now, they would have developed know-how that many Western countries might not have. And many African leaders are also not unaware of their fragile healthcare systems – unlike some of their Western counterparts. 

African governments understand very well that their most effective strategy in the battle against Covid-19 is prevention and applying lessons learned from previous and/or ongoing outbreaks. 

Uganda, for example, has already redirected its screening efforts and systems from combatting Ebola into its current interventions against Covid-19. 

Even before the country registered its first case on March 22, President Yoweri Museveni (left) put in place travel restrictions and social distancing measures that advanced into full lockdown. 

Rwanda was quick to react, too. Shortly after the outbreak was confirmed in January, the government organized a committee to evaluate and bolster preparedness and response to the pandemic and trained about 500 health workers, including laboratory technicians to cope with a potential national epidemic.

And did you know that following an appeal for help from Italy, Somalia, defying the usual media stereotypes about the country, had sent a team of twenty doctors to its former colonial power to assist the European country cope with the ravages of Covid-19?

An Al Jazeera piece written by Caleb Okereke (a Nigerian journalist and filmmaker based in Kampala, Uganda) and Kelsey Nielsen (an American social worker and activist working in Kampala, Uganda) offers us some insights into why the Western world’s perception of a continent that they claim will be devastated by Covid-19 is duplicitous, incorrect and misleading:

“The view that… all African countries will suffer the same fate is deeply rooted in colonial ideology, which dismisses an entire continent as inherently backward and dysfunctional. (And) the legacy of colonialism perpetuated the lie that Black bodies are to be pitied. 

…The problem with the UNECA and Gates's projections of the impact Covid-19 will have on the African continent is that they strip African countries of their agency and redirect focus on providing charity rather than supporting already existing and well-functioning epidemiological responses”. 

Sad but true. 

I can buy into the argument that there will be African countries where the Covid-19 outbreak will have a devastating impact – but as the authors of the said artcle had observed: "...painting with a wide brush a whole continent of 54 countries and dismissing efforts of African governments to deal with the situation is simply wrong. 

Why do we not see the same broad strokes applied to continents like Europe and North America? Western countries are able to recognize nuance and complexities within themselves, acknowledging that no two countries are exactly alike. If outcomes of this epidemic in Europe and North America vary greatly from country to country, why is it not possible to assume that the same would be the case in Africa?” 

I’m betting Africa will fare better in their fight against Covid-19 than the US and Europe.

Ebola Fatalities Continue to Rise

According to figures published Wednesday, 1,803 people have died since the haemorrhagic Ebola virus was recorded in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on August 01 last year. 

This number includes two deaths in Goma, a border city that is home to over 2 million, located on the northern shore of Lake Kivu, adjacent to Rwanda. 

The first death was on July 16 and on Wednesday, the second death occurred. 

Neighboring Rwanda is said to be ready for any eventuality. They know tens of thousands of people cross the border from Goma to the Rwandan city of Gisenyi each day. These people will have their temperatures checked, wash their hands, and listen to Ebola awareness messages. 

About 3,000 Rwandan health workers in high-risk areas have been vaccinated as a preventative measure, including more than 1,100 in Gisenyi. 

As long as the outbreak continues in the DRC, there is a very real risk of it spreading to neighboring countries especially Rwanda. 

Celtic on Tuesday put in another two goals – thus, completing their comprehensive 7-0 aggregate win over Nomme Kalju. 

Next, they will play Romanian side Cluj in the Champions League qualifying third round. 

A tough test – but I remain optimistic.

It won't be long now!

Pope Francis Begs for God's Forgiveness

Pope Francis (right) on Monday begged for God’s forgiveness on behalf of those implicated in the 1994 Rwanda genocide that killed at least 800,000 people.

[Read more about the Rwanda genocide at these links

http://helpvictor.blogspot.my/2014/04/the-rwanda-genocide-1994.html and http://helpvictor.blogspot.my/2016/11/the-catholic-church-had-failed-rwanda.html].

The pontiff “conveyed his profound sadness, and that of the Holy See and of the Church, for the genocide against the Tutsi”, the Vatican said in a statement after his meeting with Rwanda President Paul Kagame.

“He implored anew God’s forgiveness for the sins and failings of the Church and (their) members, among whom priests, and religious men and women who succumbed to hatred and violence, betraying their own evangelical mission”, the statement read.

The pontiff expressed his hope that “this humble recognition of the failings of that period, which, unfortunately, disfigured the face of the Church, may contribute to a ‘purification of memory'” and promote “renewed trust”.

Calling ALL Malaysians who are twenty-one years old and above – kindly get yourself registered as a voter, if you have not done so. The country needs you to act now!

The Catholic Church Failed Rwanda

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The skulls of genocide victims in Rwanda. "The Catholic Church failed Rwanda in 1994". Photograph: Stephen Morrison/EPA

 

Rwanda’s Catholic Church have apologized for their role in the 1994 genocide, saying they regret the actions of those who participated in the massacres.

 

A church statement acknowledged on Sunday their members planned, aided, and executed the genocide, in which more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu hardliners.

 

The declaration by the Conference of Catholic Bishops, which was read out in parishes across the country declared: "We apologize for all the wrongs the church committed. We apologise on behalf of all Christians for all forms of wrongs we committed. We regret that church members violated [their] oath of allegiance to God's commandments".

 

Many of the victims died at the hands of priests, clergymen and nuns, according to accounts by survivors, and the Rwandan government said many died in the churches where they had sought refuge.

 

In the years since the genocide – which was sparked by a contentious plane crash that killed the then-president, a Hutu – the local church had resisted efforts by the government and groups of survivors to acknowledge the church's complicity in mass murder. Even saying those church officials who committed crimes had acted individually.

 

That is balderdash, baloney, bull!!!

 

[From the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda records – just two examples.

Fr. Emmanuel Rukundo (first pic) ordered soldiers to abduct and murder Tutsi refugees who had come to seek shelter at St. Leon Minor Seminary Kabgayi that he headed, among other crimes. Joseph Ndagijimana (second pic) was responsible for the killing of fellow priests in Kabgayi Diocese. In 2009, the former was convicted and handed a 25-year sentence while the latter was also found guilty and handed a life sentence].

 

Still, the bishops' affirmation represented a positive development in Rwanda's efforts at reconciliation.

 

"Forgive us for the crime of hate in the country to the extent of also hating our colleagues because of their ethnicity. We didn't show that we are one family, but instead killed each other", the statement said.

 

Bishop Phillipe Rukamba, spokesperson for the Catholic Church in Rwanda, said the announcement was timed to coincide with the formal end on Sunday of the Holy Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis to encourage greater reconciliation and forgiveness in his church and in the world.

 

Do Rwandans want to forgive? Are they ready to forgive? Can they genuinely forgive?

 

Forgiveness – it's a big word!

 

In an EPL game on Saturday, Liverpool disappointed – having failed to score, resulting in a goalless draw against Southampton.

On the Toastmasters front, I was an evaluator for a CC#10 speaker Lina Seow at the MIMKL Toastmasters meeting on Saturday; and I then delivered a CC#9 speech titled "Forgiveness" at the Liquid Gold Lite Toastmasters meeting at Hakka Restaurant in KL's Jalan Conlay a day later.

Calling Someone a Cockroach is an Insult Apparently

In South Africa, the chairwoman of the ruling African National Congress and also Speaker of Parliament, Baleka Mbete (left), had apologized on Wednesday for calling an opposition leader Julius Malema a “cockroach”. I didn’t know it is insulting but I guess there are those who get offended by the description.

She was addressing an ANC provincial congress on Saturday when she referred to “cockroaches like Malema roaming all over the place”.

She must be still fuming over Malema and members of his Economic Freedom Fighters party for what they did last week Thursday. The EFF used President Jacob Zuma's annual State of the Nation speech to question him about a state-funded, multi-million dollar upgrade to his private residence in Nkandla.

And when Malema demanded the president “pay back the money”, Mbete summoned security to forcibly evict Malema and members of his party from Parliament.

As soon as Malema became aware of the insult, he said Mbete was calling for his assassination. “If I am killed tomorrow people must know I was killed by Baleka and the ANC... We know what happened to people who were called cockroaches in Rwanda,” he said.

The term was used in Rwandan radio broadcasts to set Hutus against Tutsis in the 1994 genocide, in which at least 800 000 people were murdered.

Anyway, it was good that Mbete herself accepted that her statement was inappropriate and she subsequently withdrew her remarks "unreservedly".

I wouldn’t feel maligned if I am called a cockroach. I don't consider it offensive. Besides, cockroaches are really cool.

Here are 6 interesting facts about cockroaches that might persuade you to think differently about these wonderful bugs.

Fact 1: Cockroaches are tough. A cockroach can survive a remarkably long time without food. Some species can go as long as 6 weeks without a meal! These traits make cockroaches in our homes tough to control. But in nature, cockroaches provide an important service by consuming organic waste. They're the garbage collectors of their habitat. BTW, they are not fussy eaters. While most roaches prefer sweets given a choice, in a pinch, they will eat just about anything: glue, grease, soap, wallpaper paste, leather, bookbindings, or even hair.

Fact 2: Cockroaches are fast! Anyone who shares their home with cockroaches will tell you how fast they scurry for cover when you flip on the light switch. But when I say they're fast, I mean measurably fast. Cockroaches detect approaching threats by sensing changes in air currents. The fastest start time clocked by a cockroach was just 8.2 milliseconds after it sensed a puff of air on its rear end. Once all six legs are in motion, a cockroach can sprint at speeds of 80 centimeters per second.

Fact 3: Cockroaches like to be touched. Roaches are thigmotropic, meaning they like feeling something solid in contact with their bodies, preferably on all sides. They seek out cracks and crevices, and will squeeze into spaces that offer them the comfort of a tight fit.

Fact 4: Cockroaches get their vitamins from bacteria that live in their bodies. For millions of years, cockroaches have carried on a symbiotic relationship with special bacteroides carried within their own bodies. The bacteroides live within special cells called mycetocytes, and are passed down to new generations of cockroaches by their mothers. In exchange for living a life of relative comfort inside the cockroach's fatty tissue, the bacteroides manufacture all the vitamins and amino acids the cockroach needs to live. This arrangement allows the cockroach to dine on just about anything it finds, without concern for its lack of nutritional value.

Fact 5: Cockroaches can be conditioned. Just like Pavlov's dogs. Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov first documented the concept of classical conditioning, famously demonstrated by his salivating dogs. The dogs would hear a ticking metronome each time they were fed. Soon, the sound of the metronome alone was enough to make the dogs salivate in anticipation of a meal. Makoto Mizunami and his colleague Hidehiro Watanabe, both of Tohoku University, found cockroaches could also be conditioned this way. They introduced the scent of vanilla or peppermint just before giving the roaches a sugary treat. Eventually, the cockroaches would drool – yes, drool – when their antennae detected one of these scents in the air.

Fact 6: The vast majority of cockroaches are not pests. There are some 4,000 species of cockroaches on the planet, but only about 30 of these can be considered pests. Most cockroaches inhabit niche habitats in the wild.

So, the next time, you’re looking for a pet – why not consider a cockroach?

The Rwanda Genocide, 1994

Starting yesterday, Rwanda begins a week of official mourning to mark the twentieth anniversary of the country's genocide. President Paul Kagame lit a torch which will burn for 100 days – the length of time the killings lasted.

 

From April to July 1994, at least 800,000 Rwandans – mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus – died at the hands of the Interhamwe militia and Hutu extremists. Many of the victims were hacked to death with machetes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image credit: http://www.loyarburok.com/2012/10/19/malaysiakini-api-dalam-sekam/rwanda-genocide-1994/

Image credit: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/140407/100-days-hell-rwanda-1994-genocide-photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Annie Leibovitz shows the bloody feet of Tutsi children attempting to escape the slaughter by climbing the walls.

Image credit: http://www.metro.us/boston/news/international/2012/08/29/timeline-of-1994-genocide-in-rwanda-graphic-photos/

Image credit: http://www.mboaconnect.com/articles/2014/02/23/g%C3%A9nocide-au-rwanda-au-m%C3%A9morial-de-la-commune-rouge-de-rubavu-la-flamme-du#axzz2yFoCJbvG
 

 

Image credit: http://www.mariellafurrer.com/#/news-stories/rwandan-genocide-congo/rwanda-D

On the night of April 06, a plane carrying then President Juvenal Habyarimana, and his counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi – both Hutus – was shot down over the Rwandan capital. Hutu extremists blamed the Rwandan Patriotic Front and immediately started their bloody campaign of slaughter. The RPF said the plane had been shot down by Hutus to provide an excuse for the genocide.

 

The butchery was executed systematically, methodically and meticulously. Lists of people were handed out to militias who went and killed them, along with all of their families. Neighbors killed neighbors and husbands even killed their Tutsi wives. Their own children were not spared if they resembled their Tutsi mothers.

 

At the time, ID cards had people's ethnic group on them, so militias set up roadblocks where Tutsis were murdered in cold blood, often with machetes which most Rwandans kept around the house. Thousands of Tutsi women were taken away and kept as sex slaves.

 

The mass bloodletting only ended on July 04, when the RPF, a Tutsi-led rebel movement backed by Uganda’s army, marched into the capital, Kigali and seized control of the country.

 

Some two million Hutus – both civilians and some of those involved in the genocide – then fled across the border into DR Congo (at that time called Zaire), fearing reprisal attacks. Human rights groups say the RPF were no better as they took revenge and went about killing thousands of Hutu civilians as they took power – and more after they went into DR Congo to pursue the latter. The RPF denies this.

 

The brutal savagery in Rwanda have directly led to two decades of unrest in DR Congo, which have cost the lives of an estimated five million people. Rwanda's government, now run by the RPF, has twice invaded DR Congo, accusing its much larger neighbor of letting the Hutu militias operate on its territory. Rwanda has also armed local Congolese Tutsi forces. In response, some locals have formed self-defence groups and the civilians of eastern DR Congo have paid the price.

 

It took just one Rwandan life to trigger a bloodbath. And it took 100 days to massacre as much as 20 percent of the country's population, decimate its infrastructure and sow the seeds of regional conflicts still to come.

 

The cruelty of it all is that the world stood by and allowed the genocide to occur without any intervention. The week-long commemorations, therefore, represent an important opportunity to remind the world that it must do all it can to ensure such crimes never happen again. The problem with us, is that we forget easily and quickly.

Poo Power

Rwanda’s prisons are environmentally-friendly. 

The country’s 14 prisons have introduced biogas burners, so they are now 75% powered by the inmates’ own natural waste. The burners need one thing – a steady and regular supply of waste – and jails are perfect.

In a BBC News report dated December 18, 2011, the biogas is produced by combining the inmates’ waste from the twenty-four toilets in Nsinda Prison – almost eight thousand prisoners live here, most of them convicted of involvement in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide – with cow dung from the jail’s farm cows and water. 

The prisoners’ diet is not rich enough to produce top quality gas on its own but the pungent cocktail of human and bovine waste produces premium gas. The gas is created and stored in a series of twelve digesters – each digester is capable of holding 100 cubic meters (3,530 cubic feet) of biogas. 

This biogas generated accounts for 75% of energy needs inside the prison. But it is not just about energy savings but also protecting Rwanda’s forests. At the moment, half of Nsinda Prison still runs on firewood chopped by the inmates – so if energy dependence is wholly on biogas, trees will be left alone! 

Nsinda Prison has seen a 85% reduction in energy costs since switching to biogas. That translates into a $1.7 million saving on energy costs for all of Rwanda’s ultra-green poo-powered prisons. 

I think this is an awesome idea!